Why Steve Bannon Got Arrested

Robert is joined by Miles Gray for an update on the We Build the Wall grift.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
M hm, pods of the cast ship. Um, that wasn't
that was just sounds. That was just mouth Sounds like
a great album by Neil Sister Riga who you should
which you should check out. This is Robert Evans introducing
his podcast Behind the Bastards very poorly. Uh, Miles, please

(00:21):
come in and save me from Hello, Bobby, good to
be here. Miles Gray, coming in alive and direct from
the city of assholes, I mean angels. Miles. When you
when you did your podcast training, which day did they
teach you how to do something besides grunt incoherently while

(00:42):
introducing a podcast, I don't know. I mean, I'm I'm
not look full disclosure. I faked all my podcast education.
See you an unlicensed podcaster? I mean, look, god damn it,
I did. I did. I just had a mic and

(01:03):
someone's like, hey, you're a guy you podcast. I'm like, yes,
that is how it works. That is just how it works.
If you're a guy, you you're given a podcast. In
the early days and they weren't even given It was
just a bunch of like like zombies with Mike's being
like have this podcast. You're now endorsed by this company
that mails you things that you used to buy from

(01:23):
the CVS right yeah. Podcast. Speaking of grifts, Miles, do
you remember that Build the Wall We the people will
Build the Wall go fund me that raised million dollars?
How could I forget something that on its face was
like immediately visible that this was scan It was such

(01:47):
a beautiful So we did an episode about this, which
you can check out. Katie and Cody were the guests
on that one. I think, um and I don't like
them anymore because I work with them on another podcast,
so like them, we're angry at each other. Now now
let's they're just it's they were they're podcasting too much. Um.

(02:09):
So we we talked about them, and basically the gist
of it is that this guy, Brian cole Fage, who
was like he likes to brand himself as the most
severely injured airman in the U S air man in Iraq,
which might be true. I mean, I don't know how
you like measured that, but he was like horrifically wounded.
He was on his way to the gym on a
base in the Green Zone when a mortar landed right
next to him and he lost his legs and like

(02:31):
part of an arm like that, he got really fucked up, um,
like about as badly as you can without dying. Um.
So he came back home and he started like a
fake news empire on Facebook with like all these right
wing news websites, and he's making quite a bit of
money before Facebook shut his whole network down because it
was like he was breaking their terms of service a

(02:54):
bunch um with like a bunch of coordinated and authentic
activity and stuff, oh like all the yeah, yeah, So
they shut him down and when his money's biggott got
turned off and there's like articles from people who worked
at them at the time he said that guy has
a horrible temper. He could get like violent and stuff
at the drop of a hat. He's he's just a
very unpleasant person. Um. Which you know, I'm sure some

(03:17):
of that's horrific trauma, but it doesn't excuse grifting thousands
of people, which is what he did next. So he
created a go fund me for we the People will
Build the Wall. There's now confirmed evidence that they were
talking with members of the Trump administration. They had like
meetings with them. There was talk of like trying to
figure out how to take the funds that they got
and roll it over or like you know, there was

(03:39):
there was official correspondence that they had with members of
the Trump campaign and likes or the Trump team. And
as soon as like this thing took off, which you know,
it was pretty much immediately making raising millions of dollars,
a bunch of other famous right wing grifters got on board,
including our old buddies Steve Bannon. Eric Prince was on
the board of the foundation they set up to deal
with the money. So like basically when it became clear that, um,

(04:04):
you know, so the initial idea was like, we're going
to raise money to give to the government so that
they can build this wall because the damn Libs won't
give it to us. Yeah, and that it became clear
that like that's not really how the government works, Like
you can't just you can't just go fund me. Um,
a border wall that would be number one involved like

(04:24):
building on massive amounts of private land and like all
of this ship like you just it's not a thing
that gets to be done. Um. So they changed the
focus of it to like we're going to actually build
the wall. Um. And they they you know, because they
were altering sort of the nature of what they were doing.
Go fund Me allowed people to kind of opt in

(04:44):
to continue having their money roll over into the new
thing that they were doing, and most people who donated
agreed to do it. There's a bunch of shady stuff,
and like their explanation of what they were doing, including
the point that like the money will be used either
to actually construct the wall or to engage in you know,
lobbying or whatever that will help to construct the wall.
So there's like a bunch of stuff where it's like, oh,
so you're going to became very clear, like you're going

(05:06):
to find ways to put this in the pockets of
the very famous right wing people who have all leapt
onto this program, including Steve Bannon and Eric Prince. And
you know, one of the things they repeatedly stated when
this all happened is that Brian Colefaje, who was founder
and the face of the thing, was not going to
receive any money. UM, would not be paid, wasn't going
to make any a dime off of this. It was

(05:27):
just you know, doing it out of the goodness of
his heart. UM. And then uh, last week, Uh, all
of these guys got arrested UM, which is the best
thing that's ever happened that Steve Bannon has now for
more than a week been incarcerated. Um, it just it
just slaps unbelievably hard. The thing with that though, like

(05:52):
listening to these people, knowing Eric Prince is on that board, right,
he should know better than you, should know better than
anyone that like building like sical infrastructure on like in
the United States is probably a long shot, Like he
you have a better chance crowdfunding a private air force.
I feel like then being like, yeah, we're just gonna
build chunks of border wall because you know, fucking America.

(06:14):
I'm a little disappointed in Eric, you know what I mean,
Like he should he knows, out of anyone, if you're
gonna pull some wildly illegal kind of stuff where you're
trying to take the place of the government, you gotta
start up, you gotta you gotta be a little more surgical. Yeah,
I mean, but he doesn't, like he's he he's committed
so many more blatant crimes to this, and he always
gets away with it because he's a billionaire. Um that said,
I don't think he was super involved with this. Um

(06:37):
like this was like legitimized side piece for him. Yeah yeah, um,
you know, but it is. It is. So it's turned
into this amazing story where like again like the fucking
Steve Bannon's got arrested as a result of this, there's
pictures of him now fucking in handcuffs and it's it's
one of the best things that's ever happened. And it
was the best thing about it is that it was

(06:58):
like the Postal Services Investigative Unit, which is the first
federal law enforcement agency we all learned when they arrested
Steve Bannon. Um damn. So I guess, I guess I'll
say maybe not all cops are bad, like we've we've
got like I'm willing to make an exception for the
post Office cops given what happened recently exactly. And then

(07:19):
like we said, like even with the post Office under fire,
like if we're going to back the blue, is going
to be the Postal Service, Yeah, it's gonna be the
These are the ones I'm I'm I'm I'm a hundred
percent supportive of arresting Steve Bannon on a yacht. Cut
to some like wild clip of like postal like postal
police brutality, and you're like, what even y'all, I thought
you were the mail cops. No, that's they actually committed

(07:42):
genocide against all these different tribes. I don't know that
I've never heard that the post Office committed genocide, but like,
let's be honest, it wouldn't be the most surprising thing
in American history. Um, but that I let's not make
random allegations of genocide against the Postal Service. Yeah, let's
let We've got the charging document, which is the it's

(08:05):
basically like a podcast episode written by a United States
district court, in this case, the Southern District of New York,
UM to summarize the government's case against all of the
crime doer spied. The we the people will build the
wall con um and I'm just gonna start reading it
to you. Miles will skim some parts of it when
it gets boring, but like, in fact, I'm just gonna read.

(08:27):
I'm just gonna get me. I'm like because I love
sometimes you know that these cases, especially in this Trump era,
where just the like legal description of your like these amazing.
How did they think any of this was going to
work or they weren't going to get caught? I mean,
the thing that's more amazing to me is that they
did get caught. Like clearly, whatever else is going on

(08:50):
in the world, Steve Bannon and Brian cole Fage did
not have the the cloud they thought they had, because
they thought they had the cloud that like Roger Stone has,
where we can commit blatant crimes and we will get
forgiven for it um or will they'll be too scared
of us to go after us. And it just wasn't
true for them. And I don't know why entirely, but

(09:11):
it's beautiful. Yeah, maybe it was that it was too blatant.
Maybe it was that, you know, they didn't kiss the
right asses. I don't know what the the explanation is,
but let's let's get into it. The grand jury charges
one Brian Colfage, Stephen Bannon, Andrew Battle Laddo, and Timothy Shay.
The defendants and others orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds
of thousands of donors, including donors in the Southern District

(09:34):
in New York, in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign
ultimately known as We Build the Wall that raised more
than twenty five million dollars to build a wall along
the southern border of the United States to induce donors
to donate to the campaign. Colfage and Bannon, each of whom,
as detailed here in exerted significant control over We Build
the Wall, repeatedly and falsely assured the public that Colfage

(09:54):
would quote not take a penny and salary or compensation,
and that quote one percent of the funds raised will
be used in the execution of our mission and purpose, because,
as Bannon publicly stated, we're a volunteer organization. These representations
were false in truth. Brian cole Fage, Stephen Bannon, Andrew

(10:16):
battle Otto, and Timothy Shay, the defendants, collectively received hundreds
of thousands of dollars and donor funds from We Buld
the Wall, which they each used in a manner inconsistent
with the organization's public representations. In particular, call Fas covertly
took more than three hundred fifty thousand dollars and funds
that had been donated to we Buld the Wall for
his personal use. Well, Bannon, through a nonprofit organization under

(10:36):
his control, Nonprofit One, received over a million dollars from
We Build the Wall, which Bannon used to, among other things,
secretly pay coal fag and to cover hundreds of thousands
of dollars and Bannons personal expenses. Dude was his thing
on nonprofit. Oh, that was just in the charging documents.
It's non problem I thought of, which makes sense because
it's a legal document. I was hoping that Steve bann

(10:58):
is like such a lazy Skimer, that he's like a funk.
I gotta put a nonprofit together to fucking be able
to move this money around. I call it a nonprofit one.
It's like my idea. I've always wanted to create an
LLC for a variety of reasons and call it unlimited
liability because there's something in my brain that enjoys the
idea of unlimited liability. A limited liability corporation funlimited liability.

(11:23):
To conceal the payments to co Fage from We Build
the Wall call Fage, Bannon, bat Lato, and Shade devised
a scheme to route these payments from We Build the
Wall to co Fage indirectly through a nonprofit and a
shell company under Shay's control, among other avenues. They did
so by using fake invoices and sham vendor arrangements, among
other ways, to ensure as co Fage noted in a
text message to batt Alato that his pay arrangement remained

(11:45):
confidential and kept on a need to know basis. So again,
committing crimes and texting about it, Yeah, what a hallmark
of of this group of people, just like yeah, yeah this,
we make our own receipts here. I have. I know
so many people that like, because of the protests, like
won't text message about the shield materials that they're like

(12:08):
gathering so that people can build like defensive devices to
protect themselves from impact weapons. Like they're paranoid about like
gathering fucking uh like rubber and and foam inserts and stuff. Um,
And these guys are just like, yeah, I gotta go
steal a million dollars, you guys, Like here's that we're
doing it right, And also use this fake vendor like

(12:29):
like weet up to illegally funnel money through to do
this illegal thing that we're all doing together. You guys
all down for the illegal crimes that we're committing. It's
so easy to be a conservative. We are defrauding the
American people with our build a wall scheme. Please like,
please use the tap back in your messages app and

(12:50):
your iPhone to confirm your that you were culpable. I
know people who live in paranoia because they're getting followed
as a result of bringing water every night to two
demonstrations and like this ship nonsense, fucking hell. On or
around December seventeen, two thou eighteen, Brian call Fage, the defendant,

(13:12):
with the assistance of others, launched a fundraising campaign originally
called We the People Build the Wall on a crowdfunding website.
The crowdfunding websites that's referred to in the document, it's
go fund me. According to statements on the web page
for we the People Build the Wall on the crowd
funding website, it's just so very funny. It just looks
very silly, and you can't you can't say that without laughing. Yeah,

(13:33):
the crowd funding website, the crowd Like come on, guys,
this is like, yeah, this is like when a fucking
movie uses some sort of fake Google thing, like the
Researcher or whatever. It's like, come on, guy, we know
it's Google. The campaign was raising funds to donate to
the United States federal government for construction of a wall
at the southern border of the United States. The web
page also stated that your donations would be given to

(13:53):
the government for the construction of a wall, and that
if the campaign could not attain its goal, it would
refund every single penny. The We the People Build the
Wall campaign was an immediate fundraising success. Within the first week,
Brian cole Fage, the defendant, with the assistance of Timothy Shay,
the Defendant, raised approximately seventeen million dollars. Despite its early success,
the campaign also drew scrutiny, including questions about call flag
is background and the campaign's planned to give the money

(14:15):
raised to the federal government. Based on those concerns, In
or around December two thousand eighteen, go fund Me, which
they crowdfunding website, suspended the campaign, which by that point
had raised more than twenty million dollars, and warned Brian
call Fage, the defendant, that unless he identified a legitimate
nonprofit organization into which these funds could be transferred, the
crowdfunding website would return the funds. At around the same time,

(14:37):
Brian cole Fage, that defendant, involved Stephen Bannon and Andrew
battle Lotto, the defendants and the leadership of the campaign. Bannon,
a political strategist and former media executive and Battle Lotto,
an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. We're already working together on
nonprofit one, which was a separate Section five oh one
C four organization founded by Bannon with the stated purpose
of promoting economic nationalism and American sovereignty. Fascist. We can

(15:01):
go that one. Fascism, economic nationalism, fascist, and he uses
his fun fancy fascist nonprofit to funnel donations into illegally,
which is just very on brand. Within days of becoming involved,
Stephen Bannon and Andrew battleaddo that defendants took significant control
of the fundraising campaigns, organization, and day to day activities.

(15:23):
So basically they took They immediately took control of We
the People Will Build the Wall. Um. And by like
late December two thousand eighteen, um, they were basically in charge.
And they created a new five O one C four
called We Build the Wall, Inc. And they proposed that
the money you know, would be transferred there um and
the nonprofit we build yeah, yeah, nonprofit to build to

(15:45):
to finance private construction of a wall along the southern border. Um.
So yeah, And they gave a bunch of assurances to
go fund me uh that like this was all legitimate
and the money would all go to act like to this,
to this new five of one C four they'd founded
UH in order to induce UH go fund me to
release the donor funds. UH. These insurances include I'm quoting again.

(16:08):
These assurances included, among other things, written by laws with
conflict of interest provisions and compensation restrictions precluding insiders like
call Fage, among others, from inappropriately misusing donor funds. And
I promise that call Fage will take no salary and
will personally not take a penny of compensation from these donations.
Call Fage, Bannon and Battlelato also agreed that donors would
have to opt in too, having their contribution redirected from

(16:29):
the crowdfunding website to we build the wall. So they
they hung themselves here. They like, they made a legal
document promising that in no way would among other things,
call Fage get any money from this, because it was
the only way to get the money, and they just
assumed it would be fine because so many other crimes
that these people and their friends committed were fine. It's

(16:50):
just like like how scumbag men think to like with sex.
It's like, well, what I gotta say to have sex,
you know, and after that may not mean it, but
I'm so just shortsighted about my own gratification. I will
deceive and lie just to get there without any thinking
of like where that goes after the fact. And I
just love that, like this scam is so fucking American,
and that like your weaponizing like the fear of black

(17:13):
and brown people to then enrich yourself, and like when
really you could give a fuck about any of it
aside from purely as being like, oh this is great
as a great group of just dummies to just rintse. Yeah,
it's it's evidence of what those of us who are
are vaguely aware of like objective reality, um, have known
for a long time, which is that like almost none

(17:35):
of these fascists, with the exception of really like Stephen
Miller and a couple others, almost none of them believe
in what they're saying. It's just the best way to
get what they want, which is money and power. Like
if these guys, if their primary concern was a legal immigration,
they would have tried to use they would have used
this money to in some way fuck over migrants, right,

(17:57):
Like whether or not it was the wall, that's what
they would have done this huge amount of money, um,
and they would have gotten nothing but praise from the donors,
even if it wasn't a wall, even it was some
other way of hurting these people. Um, But they didn't
even really care about hurting those people. They just wanted
to steal. And it's awesome. It's so good that in
this one rare instance, they faced consequences. Yeah, I mean

(18:21):
you hate to see it and you love to see it. Yeah,
you know, it's it's yeah, it's so good. It's so audacious.
But again, I don't know what. Ever, every time, like
even when whenever I come on this show, it's I'm
always like, damn, the audacity of these But that really
is the true DNA of a true historical piece of ship. Bastard,

(18:43):
is you really you have us. You're just all about
yourself and there's absolutely zero consideration for anything aside for
your own it's like just your very own personal lived experience. Yeah,
And it works for them usually because it's an effective
strategy in winning in our system, is to only give

(19:03):
a shit about yourself and be like sociopathically dedicated to
nothing but your own enrichment, right, Like that works in
a lot of ways, except for occasionally you get arrested
on a yacht by the post Office. Got to be
like you no way, I wonder if you're pissed, You're like, fuck,
it's it would be at least like the FEDS or

(19:25):
something like the bed FEDS. It's did you have to
wear that hat to I hope they did. I hope
they're They're exactly the same as a normal swat team,
but with the hats just and not even the tach gear,
Like they don't even have weapons. They're just like very
coordinated group of mail carriers that are like or if
we can do this without what would I wouldn't funk
with a group of mail delivery I mean essentially, I

(19:48):
mean that work for the postal service too. I'm like,
you're actually dealing with people with some experience in the
military as well. So yeah, so man uh. Beginning in
January too, that and nineteen, the defendants caused we Build
the Wall to mislead donors, promising them repeatedly that a
hundred percent of the funds would be used for construction
of a wall, and that call Fage in particular, would

(20:10):
take no salary or compensation, and obviously contrary to this,
they were immediately misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars and
funds for their own benefit. Beginning on around January eleventh
to that's and nineteen, and consistent with the insurances provided
to the crowdfunding website, we Build the Wall announced that
it had changed its mission to the private construction of
a wall and that donors needed to opt in. Uh. Yeah,

(20:31):
and and and that worked out. Um. And it seemed like,
you know, the document is alleging that this worked because
of their promise that a hundred percent of the funds
raised would be used towards the construction of a wall
and that not a penny would be used to compensate colvage.
They repeatedly made these preperation, like they're standing basically over
and over again. They couldn't stop making these promises. And
they're making these promises is why so many people willing

(20:53):
to like donate the money. Um. And it's why it's
so easy for us to prove that they repeatedly broke
the broke the law. Yeah, I'm sure like the comments
of the Trump family helped too, because I remember, like
don J was like, look at you, look at this
man like this is an example of American enterprise or
some ship and like the whole he's a hero. Yeah, yeah,

(21:13):
he's gonna there's doing it better, faster and cheaper than
anything else. Like yeah, definitely cheaper and ship than anything else.
If I had to choose between the government spending hundreds
of millions of dollars on incomplete sections of wall that
are easily breached or dollars on nothing, I would I
will choose the nothing also because I prefer there not

(21:34):
be any wall on the southern border or um. And
in fact, if we could just spend twenty five million
dollars a year and have it go to right wing
grifters and have an open border on the south, UM,
I would. I would make that compromise. That's that's a
that's something I'm willing to to get on board with,
right right, Like, dude, just take your money and off,
just take your money and like stop sucking with these people.

(21:55):
So just you know, we just printed a bunch of
that ship. We don't know what how much it's really worth. Yeah,
U so call fas posted messages on social media that
included representations such as we promised a hundred percent of
the funds raised only go to border wall construction. All
money donated to We Build the Wall goes directly to
wall to wall, not anyone's pocket. I'm taking nothing zero.

(22:17):
In fact, ko Fasch went so far as to send
massy emails to his donors asking the purchase coffee from
his unrelated business, telling donors that the coffee company was
the only way he keeps his family fed in a
roof over their head. Because Foch was taking no compensation
from We Build the Wall, couldn't stop double dipping. Like
none of them have any sort of self control. They
can't fucking double dip. It's h hey that then again,

(22:44):
even when you add the layers of just balls to this,
where you're like, dude, I'm fucking stealing from you, and
then I'm also going to have my shitty coffee company
and built you for more cash from there. My hat's
off to him. It's start. You know who doesn't sponsor
this show, That shitty coffee company. But you know who

(23:05):
does sponsor this show, Oh the good people at Raytheon, Yes,
Raytheon Miles. You know what's better than a border wall
for stopping migrants from crossing the border. Oh? Yeah, predator drones.
Predator drones armed with the new r X nine knife missile. Yes,
the knife missile allows you to knife people from the
sky using the power of the federal government. And which

(23:27):
is and gravity less of a factor, you know, the
night the beautiful. The beauty of Raytheon technology is that
it functions equally where well in a zero G environment,
so that when in the inevitable future we have Moon
refugees will be able to shoot them with knife missiles
two miles. That's the promise of Raytheon. Actually, you're saying
it wrong. It's Gray Theon. Let's roll some ads. We're back,

(23:56):
all right, So yeah. Again. It goes on for a while,
for like another page or so about how many different
ways he promised in public, in in a binding legal manner,
that he would take no compensation from this and how
often all of the defendants, including Steve Bannon, signed off

(24:17):
in one way or another and promoted the fact that
he would take no like. All of this seems to
be resting on the fact that Brian cole Fage specifically
got money from this um and none of them they
just no one thought anyone would notice anything. I don't
I it's I can't get my head around it, because
do you think because like they were just sort of
being like, if we hide behind this person whose body

(24:39):
was mangled in war, and that will sort of get
like sort of give him this position where you wouldn't
dare question their patriotism like in that like they were
also sort of like getting really hyped up on that
idea too, for like the whole sort of grift of
it all. Yeah, I think they figured that, like they
could that nobody on the right and nobody in the
Trump administration would ever allow anything bad to happen to

(25:03):
cole Flage because he's but like and it's the same.
I don't know. We'll see how this situation in Kenosha
with the mass shooter goes. But like the Trump campaign's
initial thing was to be like, oh, he's not affiliated
with us in any way, we support with law enforcement
did um interesting and charging him with murder? Um. You know,
we'll see because obviously there's folks in there right that
want to like adopt that kid as a mascot. I

(25:24):
don't know what the Trump I think he's actually speaking
at the RNCA. I don't actually know like what Trump.
They all are gonna wind up doing about this. But
like the initial thing they did was what their actual
initial reaction is, which is, oh, this person's a liability.
Let's jettison them immediately. Maybe they'll decide against that, but
like that's what they've done with cole Fag. Like they

(25:45):
haven't they haven't made any sort of a stink about
the arrest of Cool Fager Band, and they've just been like, yep,
they shouldn't have sucked up and broken the law. We
support law enforce. But because like, no, they don't give
a shit about you. Their their their hearts must be
breaking right now. Yeah, it's like what the funk Steve
you said would be fine? So let's go on to
just how fucking blatant this is. So, the document continues

(26:07):
to note. In developing the strategy of emphasizing to donors
that co Fage would not be paid a dime, Bannon
and battle Loado, in a text message exchange, discussed how
that message would help drive fundraising and options by prior
donors because it would, as bat Alato stated, become the
most talked about media narrative ever since it removes all
self interest taint and gives Brian Colfage sainthood. For that reason,

(26:30):
Battlato insisted that the statement that Cofage will not take
a penny of compensation be included in the email too.
We build the walls donors about the opt in process,
explaining in an email that his statement was a material
item two donors. Again, let us all state clearly in
text messages, how like that we are committing a crime,
that we are making legally binding promises that we intend

(26:51):
to break. Let's just all talk about that, very clear
documents like, don't even use the finesse of like voice
messages back and forth, so kind of temporary transmission whatever.
Just yeah, just cement it all there. They made it
really easy for the Postal Investigative Service. What are they
technically called U S p I S or something, Yeah,

(27:12):
something like that. Okay, YAHOUTFIC cops the only cops that
I'm supportive of until somebody tells me about the horrible
things that they've done, I'm sure, and then we'll have
another episode and the police cops. All I know is
that they arrest fascists on yachts. I speak for all
of your listeners. Can you stop? Can you stop predicting things?

(27:34):
They're going to choose for a moment to believe that
there's a law enforcement agency who just who just arrests
yacht fascists. I want to believe in something, and I'm
choosing to believe in this for the moment. Yes, I
mean it should stop footing horrible things about everything and
then it happening, like all of us would be like

(27:54):
super appreciative if you could like predict something good. Yeah,
I'm going to predict that the only other thing the
Post Office cops do is arrest people who will legally
mail kittens. They're just that they're just out there protecting
kittens and arresting fascists. I've decided to believe this and
making like some of the best like sort of small
batch artisanal ice cream you've ever tasted. Yeah, they make

(28:14):
ice cream for some reason too, um, and it's it's
apparently great. So yeah, that's a that's a world I
want to so. Moreover, the thing goes on to note, uh,
the defendants conveyed that others in the leadership we Build
Wall and its advisory board, which Bannon shared, would not
be compensated. For example, called fag wrote on social media,

(28:35):
I thought it was pretty clear. I made a promise
that I would never take a penny. A hundred percent
of fundraising through donations will only go towards the walls
percent right, board won't see any of that money. So
they just kept promising that everything they were going to
do was Yeah, it's cut to their texture. They're like,
hundred percent means fucking maybe five percent. Board will see

(28:57):
as much of that money as they want. All right,
So what do we tell him? This next part's heartbreaking.
So this goes into like how many of the donors
believed what he was saying. Donors took notice of this
coronarative and told Brian call Fage, the defendants, and others
working for We Build the Wall that it mattered to them.
Some of those donors were wrote directly to call Fage
that they did not have a lot of money and

(29:17):
were skeptical about online fundraising campaigns, but they were giving
what they could because they trusted Colfage would keep his
word about how their donations would be spent. Call Flage
also wrote to prospective donors who raised concerns and sharing
the donors in private messages that he was not being
compensated these false assurances successfully induced donors to give money
to We Build the Wall and opt in to have
their prior donations transferred to We Build the Walls new

(29:39):
nonprofit entity. Of the original twenty million raised from hundreds
of thousands of donors, most of the donors agreeded to
opt in, so that I didn't realize. But the fact
that they even have that that like no, no, individual
donors who didn't have much money personally reached out to
Brian with their concerns and he lied to these people
to their phases is It's so sweet. It's so perfect.

(30:02):
It's so I mean, it's so Trump University too, you know,
where people are like you know there, it's like their
last shot. This is my dialysis money. Yeah, and in
this case it's like I want to brutalize the brown
people something. Yeah, I know. But it's just so funny
that like even then, right, they're so committed to this
like you know, fear of a black and brown America

(30:25):
that they're just sort of like you know, giving their
last material like bit of like wealth they have to
this stupid mirrage of racism. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
And it's one of those things like people I I do.
Like people ask why I don't do more crowdfunding stuff,

(30:46):
and it is because like when you do crowdfunding stuff,
you get donations from people who will make statements like that, like, hey,
I believe in what you're doing. I don't have much money,
but I feel like I felt like a piece of
ship every time that's happened. So I would rather take
I would rather, you know, be paid by advertisers then
than yes, someone give. Yeah, I don't. I just don't
want to. I don't want to. I don't want that

(31:07):
on my fucking conscience. I don't want to. Like, oh,
and now I'm spending the money, um, you know on
grub Hub tonight or whatever or like izza, and it's like,
oh funk, this was this, Like I I don't want
to co It's just no, I'm I will. I will
sell products and services. Yeah exactly. And that's like that's
my line. I'm not saying it's immoral to crowdfund. I
think it's fine. A lot of my friends make their

(31:27):
living that way. It's just like it fucked me up. Uh,
and I'll probably do something like it again, but I'll
again repeatedly begged people please don't donate money if you
don't have money, like it's not important to my rich
friends only. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay, so um. Despite these

(31:52):
repeated assurance Okay, so this is yeah. Despite these repeated assurances,
the public narrative, correct deliberately crafted by the defendants and others,
was false. In fact, although We the Wall spent money
on the construction of a border wall, hundreds of thousands
of dollars were siphoned out if We Build the Wall
for the private use and benefit of the defendants. Indeed,
despite co Fage's numerous public statements that he was not
taking his salary or getting a penny in compensation, within

(32:12):
days of launching We Build the Wall, call Fage, working
primarily with Bannon and battle Oto, reached a secret agreement
whereby call Fag should be covertly paid a hundred thousand
dollars up front and then twenty thousand dollars a month.
Because that arrangement was directly contrary to the defendants repeated
public representations, the defendants and other scheme to pass these
payments to Cofage indirectly through third parties, including entities under

(32:36):
the control of Bannon and Shay um so, yeah, they
this is the stuff that we, you know, we talked about.
Bannon made it clear in a text message to battle
Lotto that there would be no deals I don't approve
and directed that co Fage be paid indirectly through Nonprofit
one in an attempt to conceal the payments from the public,
notwithstanding the fact that co Fage did no work for
nonprofit one and that the payments from nonprofit one to
call Fage would be funded by build we build the wall.

(32:58):
Um so yeah, there's text messages between Bannon and Battlelado
talking about what fasch is salary would be. Um he
Bannon directs the wiring of money illegally from the campaign.
Uh to this. Yeah, Like they've got Bannon dead to
fucking rights. It sounds like he's he's discussing, here are

(33:19):
the crimes we will commit. These are crimes because we
have like we have to keep these crimes secret because
they were legal. Here's how I'm going to do that.
And then we have him personally like doing the wire
payments and stuff. That's amazing. Oh god, this next part
when co fag later noted in a text message to
battle Loado that at least in part as a result

(33:40):
of these pass through payments, we build the wall would
have to disclose substantial payments to one on tax forms.
Battle Latta replied, better you than me l O l
L stupid pieces of ship. Yeah, lawfully officially, I don't know,
Like what did you just that a whole cent? I

(34:00):
mean wow, at every turn, like you had to be
like wink wink, like it almost could have been that,
you know what I mean? I seal the payments ca
Fag received from nonprofit one co Fage instructed Battle a
lot of that the payments should be made to call
Fag's spouse and that nonprofit one significant and nonprofit one
subsequently issued a form falsely stating that it had paid
ca spouse for media, so that just hey, you know

(34:24):
what we should do is falsify some government documents. I
paid you for media. Okay, now if they ask what happened,
was you held you took some photos of me for Instagram? Yeah?
Fucking incredible, Like there was a lot of like those
like fake gass vendors. Was always like vague, right, like
media like social media or some ship yeah for media,

(34:44):
like he sucking assholes thereafter beginning in or around April
nineteen and to further conceal payments if We Build the
Wall funds to Bryan co Fage that defended his secret
monthly salary of approximately twenty was passed indirectly through the
third party entities that were purported vendors for We Build
the Wall, including one under the control of Timothy Shay,
the defendant, Starting in around March two thousand nineteen, Shay,

(35:05):
who had been involved in early operations for the predecessor
campaign to Weeld the Wall and was familiar with its
repeated promises, proposed in a text message exchange with co
Faje paying co Fag and himself out of a veiled
shell corporation to conceal the source in nature of the payments.
Shay suggested that to conceal transactions where, for instant instance,
six hundred thousand dollars comes in and he transfers three

(35:26):
to cole Fage, they could create companies that hired co
Fash and Shafe whose service like consulting to further conceal
the secret arrangement. Co Fasch told Shay in an email
that they could falsely describe the payments from the new
shell entity to cole Fage as for social media, love it,
love it. It's just I mean, because yeah, those forms
that it just really feels like when you're like being

(35:47):
lazy and trying to do your tax and you're like,
I don't know, yeah that business, internet, social media, sure,
and it's just my salary. Yep, it's it's the best.
That's when like at one point too, right, didn't they
like kind of wise up that, like they were kind
of being a sloppy with it, Because I feel like
I remember at the beginning of this year to that Yeah, okay,

(36:10):
here we go. Um. Yeah. The memo lines on these payments,
yeah sir again. On or around May nineteen, Shell Company
one received a thirty thousand dollar wire from Rebuild the Wall.
Uh then it got you know, paid twenty thousand to
cold Fage. The memo lines on these payments falsely stated
that they were for social media accounts and pages, when
neither coal Fage nor anyone else had done such work

(36:30):
for Shell Have them at least do fake work like
putting the make on the fucking Donald Trump sub bred
to get you some fucking memes, some ship posts or something. Yeah. Moreover,
additional twenty dollar payments are made a co fage and
funded with money from we Build the Wall, uh to.
These payments were made in subsequent months until at least

(36:50):
October two, thou nineteen, when US discussed below the defendants
learned that they might be under criminal investigation. Oh god,
that's good. That must they must have been, dude, I
can only imagine how much Steve Bannon's stress sweat was
just stinking whatever room he was. Yeah, I hope there
were respirators left over from the fighting in Portland for

(37:13):
those post office guys to like deal with that to board,
that stinking board, that stink. Yet, I'll donate mine, right,
like honestly, like we would sort of confiscate this and
maybe auction it off. But yeah, we're just gonna have
to scuttle this night. We're just we're gonna have to
burn this thing in the seat artificial reef like coral
and wildly shoot it into get get get elon muskin

(37:36):
here and shoot it into space like that car off
it Like we can't. We can't put this in the ocean.
It's been toxic. Oh gosh. So yeah, what kind of
like measures did they take when they were like, oh, guys,
I think we might be doing something bad that the

(37:57):
police are noticing. Yeah, let's get down. So from from
the start of the creation, if we build the wall,
in January to October nineteen Brian received more than three
hundred and fifty thousand dollars and donor funds passed indirectly
with the assistance of the other defendants. Um Quas used
those funds to pay for his own private expenses, including,
among other purposes, home renovations, payments towards the boat, a

(38:17):
luxury XUV, a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, personal tax payments,
and credit guard debt. Got cosmetic surgery. He did problem,
I mean he has he's horribly injured. Like it might
not even be a vanity thing. It might be like
a like an actual medical procedure because he's yeah, he's
horribly horribly I'm not gonna like like he's committed crimes
to get the money, but like I don't even know.

(38:38):
I don't know that it was like a vanity thing.
And yeah, yeah that he's suddenly coming up with like
a like beautiful full lips and no wrinkles on his forehead.
I don't see evidence of that it's probably related to
his injuries unless we like really look and it's like, oh,
oh no, nobody got an acid injection. They really, I mean,
you know, the guy committed some crimes, but like, god damn,

(38:58):
they's doubles, triples thick. Now whoever's doing his work, you
know they knew what they were doing. So Moreover, in
addition to Brian called Foge, the defendant, Steve Bann and
Andrew battle Lotto and Timothy Shay the defendants, each received
hundreds of thousands of dollars and donor funds from We
Build the Wall, which they each used to pay for
a variety of personal expenses, including, among other things, travel, hotels,
consumer goods, and personal credit card debts. In addition to

(39:20):
the payments described above to cole Fage, with respect to Bannon,
in particular, as noted above, Nonprofit One received over a
million dollars from We Build the Wall, and while some
of that money was used to pay Cold Foge, Bannon
was used a substantial portion of those donor funds for
personal uses and expenses unrelated to We Build the Wall.
Um none of these payments were just closed to the public. Instead,
they repeatedly lied to the public about where the money

(39:42):
was going. Indeed, as called Foge noted the battle loaddo
in a text message exchange. As far as the public knows,
no one is getting paid and salaries will never be disclosed.
Don't worry, we'll crime through it. These victims will have
no idea of how hard we're criming. Bros. You know
who's not w sing us the post office cops. They

(40:02):
can eat a dick, those guys. And they like use
like encrypted messaging apps to like I thought like that
was one of the things that they thought they were
getting real smart, even though they did all this other
ship that can be found like you don't know, it
actually doesn't just as text messages. But maybe I you'd
have to say, right like I would say, you'd have
to think they would at least be careful enough to

(40:23):
use like, you know, signal or something like. They're so
blatant about this. Maybe they were just fucking texting. I
don't know, because when you consider like Paul Manna for
it was like, how do you make PDF of my
fake bank accounting? It's like, oh, boys, come on, don't
evenail that ship just googling crimes and pops up with
a question mark how to do fake bank account pds?

(40:47):
Like what, Um, it's done for an ad break just
a thought. Yeah, you know what also won't doesn't you
know what isn't a crime? Products and services. We're back
and we're talking about We Build the Wall, which was

(41:09):
the most real thing ever created. Um, it just feels
like somebody's gonna like write like some when you say
we build the Wall. I just like imagine like a
little song that comes on after that. Yeah, literally, yeah,
it has to sound like a really terrible local business ad,

(41:29):
Like you're not gonna get a good jingle out of that. No, no. So.
In or around October two thousand nineteen, Brian Cofage, Stephen Bannon,
Andrew bott Alato the other defendants all learned from a
financial institution that We Build the Wall might be under
federal criminal investigation. The defendants thereafter it took additional steps
to conceal the fraudulent scheme detailed below. For example, around

(41:51):
that time and in reaction to the potential investigation, Cofage
and Battleado began using encrypted messaging apps on their So
that's when they started October all year they're like, hey, guys,
how are the crimes were doing going still criming all right, good,
good crimes. Everybody keep criming hard, maybe under investigation. Fuck
crime out with your time out. It's like time like

(42:13):
the spice. That's as as good as I could come
up with in a moment. Yeah. Again the stress sweat.
You know, that's so clear. Right, you find out your
under investigation, and then you switched to encrypted message and
as soon as they find out, we build the walls.
Website was changed to remove any mention of the promise
that co Faj was not being compensated, and to add

(42:35):
a statement that he would be paid a salary starting
in January. Yeah, because so they stopped paying him secret
payments and announced that he was about to start getting
a salary after promising the opposite for months, for like
a year, um, and just hope that that would be okay? Yeah,
why not? You know maybe just oh you hate to

(42:57):
see it and you also love to see it. It's
so good. It's just one of the best things that's
ever happened. Yeah, I remember very happy about all this,
like when it happened, wasn't didn't wasn't that like a
news headline when they he announced he was getting a salary.
And that's when people are like, hold the funk on,
because first ever, like the sort of public per something's like,

(43:18):
where's that fucking wall you're building. It's not there, and
it was like it's a scheme. And then it's like, Okay,
that guy's gonna get like a hundred grand, and people
like what the funck now? Yeah, yeah, but where's the
fucking wall. Yeah, it's blowing over in the wind or whatever.
It's amazing. I wonder, I wonder what they thought would
happen with this, because they weren't building a wall. They

(43:39):
did like a couple of sampled chunks, but like they
never did anything meaningful. And their whole promise was that
like we'll do it faster and cheaper than the government,
so we'll be able to actually afford to do it,
and they were. They just kind of like pretend it
failed that they had like once certain spots built and
then like every engine near and like hydrologist was like,

(44:02):
this is gonna fucking just fall apart. You know, you
didn't build it's not even built the right depth. Like
none of this is done correctly. So I wonder if
you know, like I'm trying to really put myself in
that schemer mode, like if Okay, I'm into deep, how
am I going to get my way out of it?
I would probably begin some like nimby argument about how

(44:23):
like these regulations are like stopping us while I'm slowly
building some kind of like escape pod to leave to
some country without an extradition treatment. Yeah, I do, I
I do. Like people have compared this to the famous
mon Rail episode of The Simpsons, and I do kind
of feel like their plan was just a cartoon drawing
of themselves flying to Acapulca with a bag of cash. Right,

(44:44):
Is there a chance the wall could bend? Not a chance,
my bigot friend, I think the cars for Kids song
it's should be Yeah, good hundred walls for big It's amazing.

(45:08):
So let's get down to the good ship. Forfeit your allecuation.
Everything up until this point has been like a bizarro
comedy skipped a few pages because it was all just
like repeatedly restating in different ways they committed wire flowed
fraud rightly, which they did um as a result of
committing the offense alleged incount one of this indictment, Bryan

(45:29):
call Fage, Stephen Bannon Andrew battle Otto and Timothy Shay
that defendants shall forfeit to the United States pursuing to
Title eighteen, United States Code, Section NIGHTLA, any and all property,
real and personal that constitutes or is derived from proceeds
traceable to the commission of said efens, including but not
limited to, a sum of money in the United States
currency representing the amount of proceeds traceable to the commission
of said offense, and the following specific property. Um. So,

(45:51):
it then lists a bunch of different funds contained and wow,
there's a lot of bank accounts they put this money into. God,
I'm on page two. Um okay, So like there's like
two pages of different bank accounts they threw money into.
And then we get into property. So number one the
real property described as a two thousand nineteen Jupiter Marine
boat named war Fighter. The real property. Yeah, I think

(46:14):
that's the yacht that that um uh call fage got
as a results of committing the offensive. Legen account too,
of this indictment, the defendant show forward to the United
States Andy and all property, YadA, YadA. So yeah, they
gotta give up all the fucking ship that they got,
um Warfighter, they committed about he loses his boat war Fighter.
I mean, that's that's good looking boat. It is. It
had four engines. Yeah, the irony was like he was

(46:37):
sailing in that thing in the fourth of July like
Trump boat parade and floor was his share was. And
then he got arrested by the fucking Post Office and
they're gonna take that boat. And it's very funny. There
is something poetic about him in a boat like just
decked out in Trump flags, the boat being purchased with funds.

(46:57):
He griffed. It's just like what they've he fully completes
the visual circle in that moment. It's so much better
than I ever thought anything could be. I I I've
gotten a lot of credit over the last year or
so in particular and in predicting a bunch of things.
Um And I can tell you honestly, never in my
life did I expect Post Office arrest Steve Bannon on

(47:18):
a yacht would be a that's not on anyone's being.
Nobody called, especially not Steve Bannon. I guess the Post
Office might have predicted it. Yeah, God, I so bad,
you know, Like there's so many like just dark, messy
dimensions about this entire administration, but like this sort of

(47:39):
falls into like Wolf of Wall Street territory, where you
just like watch these guys getting over their heads with
their greed, and then I want like that second act
and third act is probably so great when you start
seeing it fall apart, because I would love to see
a dramatics, like a dramaticized version of these fucking losers
just pan nicking over the fact that their entire ship

(48:02):
has just been exposed, and then like all these terrible
superficial band aid fixes to it. Yeah, and I want
to stay I was wrong a little bit earlier. Co
Faje was um was was released within hours of being arrested.
He's on bond at the moment, he's pled not guilty.
And Bannon was released not long on after he was
arrested on five million dollars a bond. His travel is

(48:25):
restricted to New York and Washington, d C. And he
can't use private boats or jets without permission. Um So
we'll see, we'll see what actually happens here. In terms
of justice, they got arrested. It seems like a pretty
open and shut case to be honest. What would repeatedly
bragging about it and as a rule when the FED,
when any kind of federal agency does something like this,

(48:47):
they feel like they have a pretty air tight case.
Oh yeah, and I mean when you but again, it's
like it's so comedic because it's the confessions are all there,
like there, you don't know how what lawyer is going
to argue that they're not guilty, Like how are you
going to explain the better you than me? L O
L text? Like yeah, I'm sure they've got some sort
of like whatever they'll try, they'll try, But I'm just

(49:10):
saying it makes me cringe because you're going in there
with such like an intellectually bankrupt defense, and like I
get stressed. I'm like, oh man, you're not gonna like
you know, sometimes you can get your way, I worm
your way out of ship, but this one is a
little too tough. I think, if anything, it's it's in
the sentencing that we really see the lack of justice

(49:30):
because I think what they're looking at like twenty years
for each charge essentially, but really, yeah, well be surprised
if it's like, you know, two years they're gonna get
the aunt Becky treatment. Oh two seconds. I doubt it'll
be a crazy amount of time Um, I don't know.
You know, everyone seems to hate Steve Bannon a lot,

(49:54):
and he committed a bunch of crimes and he has
no more friends. So if you know, if Steve Bannon
gets anything more than a year, I'm going to consider
this a big win because then Steve Bannon's in a
fucking prison for a while. And I hate him, um,
and he sucks, And it would be awesome if he
actually faced a consequence for one of the terrible things

(50:15):
he's Steve no friends Bannon? Is that on your bingo car?
Justice for Steve Bannon. I never thought. I thought he
was just gonna live at the fascist castle that he
was buying in Italy, um, with an army of brainwashed militants,
for decades until dying of cirrhosis. I thought he's just

(50:37):
gonna sit like in a chair and just slowly decompose. Yeah,
I mean, he looks like, um, I won't be mean, Yeah,
I want. I just assumed he was going to die.
Um uh, the death of a successful fascist, which is
again in a castle in Italy. Um. Yeah, but maybe

(50:59):
maybe he'll go to prison and reform himself and become
the new face of the Green movement. I don't think
that's likely, but it would be kind of funny. Yeah, well,
you know, thoughts and prayers, you know, thoughts and prayers
to Steve and Brian and who these are no more friends?

(51:20):
So Miles, this was fun. How can people find you
on the internet if they want to see things that
you've done that are rating charging document? Really? I do
a daily podcast daily like guys, but really you do
if you need if you need an escape, check my
show out with Sophia Alexandra four twenty Day Fiance, you know,

(51:42):
the Bastard. The Bastard Pods followers love Sophia. We get together,
get just Stony Boulogney and just talk about our favorite
reality show because you know, that's that's a real escape sometimes.
So check that out wherever you get your podcasts. Oh yeah,
and we do this thing now where I do a
terrible Arnold Schwarzenegger impression and then I say Arnold Schwartzenegger's

(52:03):
a guest, and then pod the podcast app will tag
Arnold Schwarzenegger as a guest on the show. So if
you're Arnold Schwartzenegger fan, come by. You love to hear it,
You do love to hear it. And the other thing
you love to do is commit wire fraud, which I
have on good authority, never ends badly. So that's my
advice to listeners is to go fraud frauds some wires

(52:28):
fraud the hell out of it up. Yeah, you find
some wires fraud the sons of bitches. Get it on boom,
you know. Or you could like follow Robert on Twitter
at our right, okay, you could fallo us on Twitter
and Instagram. At bastards Pod we have a tea public
store with lots of different merchandise. And wash your hands

(52:50):
and wear a face mask. Yeah, wash your hands, wear
a face mask, commit a lot of wire fraud. Just
get it. I can't exaggerate how good an idea it
is to commit wire friend and text your friends about
the wire fraud you plan to commit. Really, just get
get in there, you know, send them letters to about
the wirefront. I have it on good authority. The post

(53:10):
office is not watching so and also yeah, have those
letters notarized as well, so you can really just make
sure all the correspondence it is fully locked in and
you're not there's no miscommunication at yeah. Yeah, be really clear.
Make sure whenever you're committing crimes. To outline the crime
that you're committing and your knowledge that it's a crime,
that's a double jeopardy. If I understand what double jeopardy is,

(53:33):
perfect that you should be there charged. Yeah, I would.
I would love to be Steve Bannon, But I I
will take that gig, you know what I will. I
will quit podcasting if they want me to defend the
representing case. Yeah, how would you do it? Like, obviously
you know you're gonna lose, So would you just try
some hairbrained ship or would you just be I mean
obviously you got to kind of work them too. You know.

(53:56):
I think I would take the most asset I've ever
taken and just see where that leads me. You know,
I've never been in a courtroom on lsd UM, but
I bet I could defend two people from charges of
wire fraud. Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah, because then yeah, when
they have to be like and what have this text message?
Can you read this one? Mr Bannon? I might turn
out to be like that guy who pitched a no

(54:17):
hitter on a head for Yeah, like that, but defending
people against charges of blatant wire fraud? Oh yes, that
is one of the great tales of doc Ellis's right, Yeah,
doc Ellis on so much acid. Pitch to Hitter, I
will be the doc Ellis of fascists committing wire fraud
in the court of law. That'll be Act three or

(54:40):
four of my career. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, all right. Yeah,
Robert kind of lost himself in those later years, but
he just kept taking acid and defending Nazis from wire fraud.
But in a way he was the He was the
greatest giver of justice because every single person got the
maximum sentence based off his hair brained defenses, and people
to this day don't know why these people agreed to

(55:01):
have him defend them. Yeah. It really was a baffling
choice all around. Yeah, alright, well the episodes over go
be with Jesus, Oh yeah, or z h h h