Speaking of walls, the guy who ran the wall building charity was just convicted. This furthers my correct assessment that trump's presidency was actually a criminal enterprise using their "white supremacist movement" to conceal their fraudulent activities. Fortunately, only deplorables were defrauded with the scheme.
A man from Colorado who helped loot a charity that raised private money for a border wall of the sort championed by former President Donald J. Trump was convicted on Friday in a retrial in Manhattan federal court. An earlier trial was scuttled by a juror who was said to have insisted that the prosecution was a “government witch hunt.”
The man, Timothy Shea, has been the only one of four defendants to face a jury in the case so far, and his mistrial earlier this year was a setback for prosecutors in an office that has handled cases involving several defendants related to Mr. Trump and his allies.
For nearly two years, Mr. Shea was a central figure in raising money for a barrier separating the United States from Mexico, working with a tax exempt group that pledged to help fulfill Mr. Trump’s call for a “big, beautiful wall.”
We Build the Wall Inc. raised more than $25 million, claiming that all the money would go toward constructing a border barrier. Those promises were lies, said prosecutors with the United States attorney’s office, and on Friday a jury agreed, convicting Mr. Shea of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to launder money and falsification of documents.
Sitting in the well of the courtroom, Mr. Shea gazed straight ahead, seemingly impassive, as Judge Analisa Torres read the verdict.
“Months ago, this office stated our belief in the powerful and compelling evidence that showed Shea’s guilt,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “Today, a unanimous jury has convicted Shea on all counts in the indictment.”
The conviction ended a case that began in 2020 when Mr. Shea was arrested along with three other men who had prominent roles in We Build the Wall: the group’s president, an Air Force veteran named Brian Kolfage, who lost both legs and part of his right arm in Iraq and guaranteed that he would “not take a penny”; a Florida financier named Andrew Badolato; and Stephen K. Bannon, a former chief strategist for Mr. Trump.
Prosecutors said that all four schemed to secretly funnel money from We Build the Wall to themselves. Those funds, prosecutors added, ended up being used to pay hotel and credit card bills, to buy jewelry, a golf cart and a luxury SUV, and to purchase a truckload of Trump-themed energy drinks marketed as containing “liberal tears.”
By the time of the arrests of the four men, We Build the Wall’s website said the group had funded the creation of just under five miles of wall.
Mr. Kolfage pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and tax-related charges. Mr. Badolato pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.
Mr. Bannon was spared a federal trial after he received a pardon from Mr. Trump during his last hours as president but is now facing a trial in state court. Last month, the Manhattan district attorney’s office unsealed an indictment charging Mr. Bannon with money laundering, conspiracy and scheming to defraud.
