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Today was supposed to be the day that Steve Bannon went on trial in the “We Build the Wall” scam. Bannon was initially indicted, along with three others, for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from people who thought they were building Trump’s border wall, but were actually lining the pockets of scam artists. Two of them were sentenced in April 2023 after pleading guilty, one to four years and three months in prison and the other to three years. They were ordered to repay their victims $25 million.
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But Bannon was not standing alongside them because Donald Trump pardoned him in January of 2021 as one of his last official acts in office. After Trump pardoned Bannon, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York State Attorney General Letitia James filed charges against Bannon and the non-profit WEBUILDTHEWALL, Inc. They described Bannon as the “architect” of the multi-million dollar fraud.
The case should have gone to trial today, but it did
not. It is now delayed until February 25, 2025, after prosecutors sought to
introduce additional evidence Bannon’s team characterized as complicated. It is
evidence of Bannon's motive for allegedly defrauding donors. The Judge warned
that the case would not be delayed again, and because it is a state
prosecution, not a federal one, Trump has no official path to interfering with
the case. Absent something unusual happening, Bannon will proceed to trial on schedule,
absent the unlikely possibility of a guilty plea.
Bannon has already been to prison following a misdemeanor conviction for flouting a congressional subpoena to testify and provide documents to the January 6 committee. He called himself a “political prisoner.”
Two weeks before he reported to prison last June, Bannon “vowed investigations and prosecutions of those who have probed the former president and his political allies, declaring at a conservative gathering Saturday that Inauguration Day in 2025 will be ‘accountability day.’” Bannon included Trump allies Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani along with himself in his assessment of people who were being persecuted. “They’re turning people into political prisoners and sending people to prison, and they will send every one of you in this audience to prison also.” Fast forward to the day after his release from federal prison, when Bannon went straight back to his podcast and stumped for Trump just days before the election.
It’s not clear what role Trump’s former chief strategist and senior counselor will play, if any, in this White House. But it’s clear that many of the themes and people he has championed, like populism, nationalism, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, are in their ascendancy.
During his first administration, Trump repeatedly
promised to hire only the best people. We all know how that ended. Now, with
nominees like Tulsi Gabbard, Robert Kennedy Jr., Kash Patel, and Pete Hegseth
pending, we know it’s not going to be true this time, either. Trump was
concerned enough to make sure Bannon got a pardon in the final hours of his
presidency. Even now, when he has a date in a courtroom in New York in
February, his ideas and advice still seem to have some traction with Trump. It
is a curious look for an American president.
Republicans on the Hill have other concerns, though.
Not satisfied with being in your bedroom, they want to be in your laundry room
too. It’s called the Liberty and Laundry Act.
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With all the important issues facing the country, House
Republicans, who will soon control the Department of Energy in any event, want
to make sure they prohibit the Secretary from “prescribing or enforcing energy
conservations standards for clothes washers” in the meantime. We all know that
important measures to address climate change will be off the table during the
Trump Administration, one of the most tragic and underappreciated consequences
of the 2024 election. Here it is, writ small—no energy efficiency in the
laundry room.
Today, after years of discussion, the Environmental Protection Agency banned two chemical solvents used in dry cleaning that cause kidney cancer and other illnesses. Will this measure too, another act taken by what Republicans demonize as the administrative nanny state, be outlawed by Congress? Last year we saw the Supreme Court call the ability of executive branch agencies to act on behalf of the American people into doubt in Loper-Bright. The potential consequences, with Republicans controlling the Hill and the (White) House, could be catastrophic if it means measures designed to protect people will be disallowed.
It doesn’t make much sense. Whether it’s Steve Bannon
defrauding Trump’s supporters or House Republicans refusing to take small steps
to protect the environment, what’s in it for us? What’s in it for people who
voted for Trump for that matter? Who wins?
We cannot and should not pay attention to every small
thing that happens. As a friend reminded me tonight, it’s just a small step
from information overload, the Trump fatigue that ensues when we try to follow
all of the outrageous things that happen around Donald Trump, to normalizing
them. We have to make sure we neither lose sight of the most significant
degradations of democracy Trump works on our country nor of their importance.
We saw that happen the last time—“It’s just Trump,” people would say about last
week’s abuses as they moved on to the new ones, because otherwise, the list got
too long. Even though I’ve been working on how to stay focused on the most
important issues, I still think it’s helpful, sometimes, to look at these small
things—Steve Bannon, washing machines—to give us a full range for creating the
context we need to understand what the next four years are going to mean for
us.
Despite the departure in tonight’s newsletter, the big picture is where I’m focusing my attention right now. That’s why I’m continuing to work behind the scenes on my idea for The Democracy Index, so we’ll have a way of identifying the most important areas where Trump is impacting democracy and following the worst abuses in each of those areas in a way that is both manageable and comprehensive. That’s how I’m preparing for what’s ahead.
Trump is preparing by talking about pardoning his
supporters. The ones who mobbed the Capitol on January 6, many of them
committing acts of violence against police officers along the way. He’s willing
to pardon them because they tried to help him stay in power after he lost the
election; they were on his side. They went to prison while Trump escaped
accountability. But he didn’t escape it because he was innocent. It was because
the Supreme Court bought him time and gave him immunity. By advertising his willingness
to pardon the people who tried to help him, Trump is sending a message to the
people he is counting on to support him this go-round: protect me, and I’ll
take care of you. It’s a fit message for a would-be authoritarian.
For people like us, who love democracy, this is the
moment to prepare to send a message of our own. A message about why democracy
matters.
We’re in this together,