The latest act of We Build the Wall Inc., a crowdfunded effort to bypass Congress and fulfill Donald J. Trump’s promise to create a barrier between the United States and Mexico, began in a courtroom on Tuesday in Manhattan.
Timothy Shea, a Colorado entrepreneur whose products include a Trump-themed energy drink marketed as “liberal tears,” is the last remaining defendant in a case that is as much about how some people cashed in on the former’s culture wars. president when it comes to the crimes described by prosecutors.
Brian Kolfage, an Air Force veteran who lost both legs and part of his right arm in Iraq, was the face of We Build the Wall, assisted by Mr. Shea. Stephen K. Bannon, a former chief strategist for Mr. Trump, joined the campaign in its early days, along with a Florida financier named Andrew Badolato.
Mr. Kolfage wrote on the group’s website, “I personally will not accept a dime in compensation from these donations.” But in 2020, the men were charged with skimming more than $1 million, which prosecutors said they used for personal expenses such as hotel and credit card bills and to buy jewelry, a golf cart and a luxury SUV.
During his last hours as president, Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Bannon, saving him a lawsuit. Mr. Kolfage and Mr. Badolato pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud last month, and Mr. Kolfage also pleaded guilty to tax-related charges.
That leaves Mr. Shea, whose trial on charges of wire fraud and money conspiracy and an additional charge of falsifying data began this week.
In court on Tuesday, John C. Meringolo, an attorney for Mr. Shea who had written in court documents that he intended to call Mr. Bannon as a witness, said he would not do so.
Mr Bannon — who was arrested in connection with the case while aboard a 50-foot yacht moored off the coast of Connecticut that authorities said belonged to a fugitive Chinese billionaire — could have prevented he would testify by saying that he feared prosecution and invoked his right to the Fifth Amendment. against self-incrimination. Mr. Trump’s pardon only applied to federal crimes, not state crimes.
A prosecutor, Alison Moe, told jurors in opening statements Tuesday that Mr. Shea and the others had a “coordinated plan” to transfer money from the fund.
“All the while, he and his partners were looking for an angle to cut,” she said. “They’ve come up with a way to stealthily.”
A few minutes later, Mr. Meringolo suggested that his client had earned money he received from We Build the Wall.
“There’s another side to this story,” he said. “It’s okay to get paid for work.”
The proceedings could provide a glimpse into the inner workings of an operation that has spread thanks to Instagram and Twitter posts boasting of ties to Mr Trump, which was promoted by Donald Trump Jr. and which brought together an advisory board of MAGA luminaires.
Those include David Clarke, the former sheriff of Milwaukee County in Wisconsin; Kris Kobach, the former Kansas Secretary of State; and Erik Prince, the founder of the private military company Blackwater, now known as Academi.
Prosecutors have said they have extensive evidence, including material from email and cloud storage accounts.
Few ideas were as stimulating to Trump’s supporters — or repulsive to his opponents — as creating a physical barrier at the border.
Chants of “build that wall” echoed at Mr Trump’s rallies. Many of his supporters, who said that undocumented immigrants from Mexico would take jobs, commit crimes and change the racial makeup of the nation, saw the structure as a symbol of the president’s decision to reverse the “America First” policy. to implement.
Critics said the wall was an isolationist response to a decades-old problem, that Trump’s characterization of many Mexicans as drug smugglers and rapists was racist, and that he exaggerated the problems at the border to scare and anger people — and to to vote.
We Build the Wall was established to complement and encourage government efforts, ultimately resulting in approximately 450 miles of new walls along the border.
Before taking up the project, Mr. Shea and his wife, Amanda, had used social media to promote their business. Those eventually include the Winning Energy drink, which came in cans with Mr. Trump as a superhero.
A marketing company founded by Ms. Shea started helping Mr. Kolfage, who had run Facebook pages and websites, including one called Right Wing News that sometimes published false or exaggerated stories. In 2018, Facebook cited “coordinated inauthentic behavior” as it removed hundreds of political pages and accounts, including Right Wing News, Mr Kolfage said.
Later that year, Mr. Kolfage launched a GoFundMe campaign to build the border wall. An indictment said that with the help of Mr. Shea, Mr. Kolfage raised about $17 million in a week. He also took control. GoFundMe suspended the campaign and said it would return the money donated unless Mr. Kolfage found a legitimate nonprofit to handle it, prosecutors said.
Soon, Mr. Bannon and Mr. Badolato, who were already working on a nonprofit that prosecutors said was designed to promote economic nationalism and American sovereignty, joined the wall campaign.
That led to the formation of We Build the Wall. Most of those who had given to the GoFundMe campaign transferred their money to the new group. Additional donations followed, and by the end of 2019, We Build the Wall had raised approximately $25 million.
According to an indictment, Bannon’s nonprofit funneled money from We Build the Wall to Kolfage and issued a fake 1099 form saying it had paid his wife for “media.” Mr Shea set up an anonymous shell company that received payments from We Build the Wall, the indictment said, withholding some money and transferring some to Mr Kolfage, saying it was for “social media” accounts and pages. used to be.
In total, prosecutors said, Mr. Kolfage received more than $350,000 from We Build the Wall. Bannon’s nonprofit received more than $1 million, some of which went toward his personal expenses, prosecutors said. They said that Mr. Badolato and Mr. Shea each received hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Still, We Build the Wall was able to build some barriers along the border. By the time of the arrests, the group’s website said it had created just under five miles of walls, though the process was at times contentious.
After experts said that part of the barrier built by We Build the Wall next to the Rio Grande could collapse into the river, even Mr. Trump expressed his disapproval.
“I did not agree to have this very small (small) section of the wall, in a tricky area, done by a private group that raised money through advertisements,” he tweeted. “It was only done to make me look bad.”
