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Steve Bannon fires back on border wall fraud charges: 'Honey badger doesn't give'

A day after President Donald Trump's former White House strategist was charged with defrauding donors to a border wall fundraising operation, Steve Bannon fired back Friday at federal prosecutors, vowing to challenge the criminal case lodged against him.

"I am not going to back down," Bannon said on his War Room podcast, referring to the prosecution as "a total political hit job."

Bannon, who pleaded not guilty Thursday prior to his release on a $5 million bond, was charged with three others in connection with a private effort to assist Trump's signature campaign program, raising more than $25 million to build parts of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The charges accuse Bannon, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea with "defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors" in the "We Build the Wall" GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign.

Steve Bannon (L), former adviser to President Trump, is joined by Brian Kolfage, founder of 'We Build The Wall,' and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Koback, during a public discussion of border issues in Green Valley Friday night.
Steve Bannon (L), former adviser to President Trump, is joined by Brian Kolfage, founder of 'We Build The Wall,' and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Koback, during a public discussion of border issues in Green Valley Friday night.

"Everybody knows I love a fight," Bannon said. "I was called honey badger for many years. A honey badger doesn't give. I'm in this for the long haul."

Bannon was arrested early Thursday morning by federal authorities while aboard a 150-foot yacht just off the Connecticut shore.

On Friday, a brash and defiant Bannon was back at work, doing what he has done for years: promoting Trump and the hard-line immigration enforcement that he helped shape while at the White House.

"This (the fundraising effort) was to show support for President Trump," Bannon said. The charges, he said, are "to stop and intimidate people that have President Trump's back on building the wall."

But prosecutors have alleged that the border wall project merely capitalized on the interest of those who supported it "under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction," acting Manhattan U.S Attorney Audrey Strauss said.

As part of the alleged scheme, according to federal prosecutors, Kolfage, the founder of the campaign, "repeatedly and falsely assured the public that he would not take a penny in salary or compensation’ and that ‘100% of the funds raised ... will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose.’”

"Those representations were false," prosecutors said, asserting that hundreds of thousands of dollars were secretly routed to the four men.

More than $350,000 was allegedly routed to Kolfage, and Bannon received more than $1 million.

Trump immediately sought to distance himself from Bannon and the wall project, saying that he felt "very badly" for his former adviser.

A history of trouble: How many Trump advisers have been criminally charged? Manafort, Stone and Steve Bannon makes 7

"I haven't been dealing with him for a very long period of time," he said, adding that he didn't "know anything about the project at all."

At the same time, however, he claimed to have opposed the project because he thought it was being done for "showboating reasons."

"It was something I very much thought was inappropriate to be doing," he said.

In 2019, Trump ally Kris Kobach told The New York Times that the president gave the wall campaign his "blessing."

Donald Trump Jr. stops by the “Symposium at the Wall: Cartels, Trafficking and Asylum,” hosted by WeBuildTheWall founder Brian Kolfage, left, Friday, July 26, 2019, in Sunland Park, New Mexico. The symposium, which was streamed live on the internet, seeks to tell the public of the need for a border wall.
Donald Trump Jr. stops by the “Symposium at the Wall: Cartels, Trafficking and Asylum,” hosted by WeBuildTheWall founder Brian Kolfage, left, Friday, July 26, 2019, in Sunland Park, New Mexico. The symposium, which was streamed live on the internet, seeks to tell the public of the need for a border wall.

Earlier that year, Donald Trump Jr. also lauded the project at a rally featuring Kolfage in New Mexico, near a section of wall funded by the project.

"This (privately funded border wall) is what capitalism is all about," the president's son told the crowd. "This is private enterprise at its finest. Doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else. What you guys are doing is amazing.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Steve Bannon fires back at border wall fraud indictment on podcast