Bannon indictment should remain

The indictment lodging fraud charges against ex-President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon should not be dismissed despite his pardon, prosecutors told a judge yesterday, citing ill effects an indictment can leave on someone even without a conviction. Prosecutors said Bannon’s lawyer had quietly slipped an email to the judge making the request to dismiss an indictment charging him with defrauding thousands of donors who believed their money would be used to fulfil Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. Instead, over a million dollars of the US$25 million raised for the “We Build The Wall” campaign was diverted to pay a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for himself, the indictment alleged. Prosecutors said the pardon Trump gave Bannon on his way out of office last month does not eliminate probable cause of guilt or undercut evidence of his involvement in crimes.