On Steve Bannon -- he took the money, but he did nothing to build a wall. It's effectively a solicitation for a fraudulent charity. Try setting up "St. Julia's Children's Hospital*", take the money, and run... and the Postal Inspectors might catch you as you enjoy a margarita on some tropical beach. You will be separated from the margarita and the beach and be hauled off. The Postal Inspectors are charged with enforcing federal statures on mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and computer fraud. Practically every swindle involves mail fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, or computer fraud. Soliciting the fraudulent business or depositing the proceeds is one of those frauds. This applies to Ponzi schemes, pump-and-dump stock frauds, insider trading, numerous forms of embezzlement, and fake charities alike -- among others. Cheats often fail to recognize that the mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and computer fraud statutes apply to what they do... but these offenses leave an extensive money trail whose documentation is easy evidence for a smart federal juror to attach the deed to the statute.
A defendant on such charges would probably not want me on the jury. Figure that a federal jury full of such people as teachers, librarians, computer people, and accountants accustomed to dealing in documents would be a defendant's nightmare.
As befits a scene out of The Wolf of Wall Street... he was caught on a yacht!
* The legitimate charity is of course the admirable St. Jude's Children's Hospital, founded by Danny Thomas.
A defendant on such charges would probably not want me on the jury. Figure that a federal jury full of such people as teachers, librarians, computer people, and accountants accustomed to dealing in documents would be a defendant's nightmare.
As befits a scene out of The Wolf of Wall Street... he was caught on a yacht!
* The legitimate charity is of course the admirable St. Jude's Children's Hospital, founded by Danny Thomas.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
