Bannon criminal probe in N.Y. includes embedded investigators from state attorney general's office
Source: Washington Post/Greenwich Time
The Washington Post
March 26, 2021 Updated: March 26, 2021 5:55 a.m.
NEW YORK - The New York attorney general's office has partnered with Manhattan's district attorney to investigate Stephen Bannon for the alleged fundraising scam that prompted his federal pardon in the waning hours of Donald Trump's presidency, according to people familiar with the matter. The move adds prosecutorial firepower to a criminal case widely seen as an attempted end-run around the former president's bid to protect a political ally.
Investigators employed by the state attorney general were deputized to work as prosecutors with the team led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., D, whose investigation of Bannon began shortly after his pardon was announced in January, these people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
"The AG is working hand-in-hand with the DA's office in leading this investigation," one person said. New York Attorney General Letitia James, D, "has been looking at Bannon for a while," the person added.
James has built a reputation, in part, around her promises to hold Trump and his associates accountable for alleged misdeeds, and she sued his administration several times over policy decisions that affected New Yorkers. It was not immediately clear whether the scope of her interest in Bannon, who helped engineer Trump's 2016 election victory and later served as White House strategist, goes beyond his alleged role in what federal prosecutors characterized last summer as a lucrative ploy to defraud donors of a private effort to expand the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Read more: https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Bannon-criminal-probe-in-N-Y-includes-embedded-16054913.php
No Paywall
https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Bannon-criminal-probe-in-N-Y-includes-embedded-16054913.php
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)msfiddlestix
(7,600 posts)In the Before Times, I could take for granted the meaning (as it turns out to here) is that an investigator from the AG's office is now part of the team doing the probing into Bannon's criminality.
But during these alternative reality times, that headline could have easily meant that an investigator from the AG's team is now being criminally probed.. Because law enforcers and prosecutors aligned with Trump's criminal enterprise is in fact, a thing, and embedded in every single Federal law enforcement agency.
Bannon criminal probe in N.Y. includes embedded investigators from state attorney general's office
I'm glad to read criminal probe investigations are being beefed up, but they're all moving too slowly, they have to pick up the pace and nail these people before they burn the last pillars of our democracy standing.
Burning it all down always was and still is, Bannon's goal.