mercredi 8 juin 2022

Trial of "build a wall" scammer

Remember when Trump advisor Steve Bannon got arrested for setting up a scam, where they would collect private donations for building part of the wall across the Mexico/U.S. border? (which resulted in much of the money being siphoned off into the pockets of the organizers.)

Bannon got indicted (and subsequently pardoned by Stubby McBonespurs). But he wasn't he only one facing legal charges.

From: Courthouse News
A federal judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the criminal case against a Colorado businessman accused of laundering money from a bogus charity that milked about $25 million from private donors who thought they were funding the construction of former President Donald Trump’s border wall. The panel is “hopelessly deadlocked,” U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres announced... (Timothy) Shea...stood trial alone, but he was charged in 2020 alongside three fellow co-founders of the group We Build the Wall: Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage and venture capitalist Andrew Badolato.
...
a juror identified himself to reporters as the only member of the panel who did not vote to convict...Ricardo, no last name given, spoke briefly and evasively to reporters about his belief that there was reasonable doubt that the case should have been brought in the Southern District of New York at all....Other members of the jury told reporters meanwhile that Ricardo fell asleep at points of the trial, ignored evidence during deliberations and was “hung up” on where We Build The Wall’s money was coming from...Another juror,...described the trial’s prolonged deliberations as “incredibly frustrating” and said the renegade juror “wasn’t interpreting the law the way we were told to.”


So, 11-1 in favor of conviction, and the one holdout seems to be basing his information on faulty evidence (at least the stuff he was awake for).

(Apparently there were earlier requests to replace A juror with an alternate, after he was accused of making anti-government statements and calling the other jurors liberals, but the judge decided to keep him on. Not sure if that was the same juror that caused the deadlock but its pretty likely.)

Hopefully they retry the case and manage to avoid any MAGAchud on the jury next time.


via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/4hpyr8a

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