Steve Bannon has described the day when he indicted and handcuffed as the ‘one of the best days’ of his life.
Earlier this week, Bannon was indicted in New York over the alleged ‘We Build the Wall’ scam, which federal prosecutors say cheated MAGA donors.
Passing reporters as he walked into court in handcuffs, he said: “This is what happens in the last days of a dying regime. They'll never shut me up. They'll have to kill me first."
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Speaking on The Charlie Kirk Show a day later (Friday 9 September), Bannon seemed relatively upbeat about the experience.
“Yesterday was one of the best days of my life,” he told host Charlie Kirk.
“It was a very powerful, spiritual day for me. A lot of things came into high clarity.”
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Bannon added: “I was totally in the zone, as you say in sports, the entire time. They’re not gonna shut me up.”
The long-time Donald Trump ally was indicted on money laundering, fraud and conspiracy charges, having been accused of misleading people with a fundraiser to help Trump achieve his goal of building a wall at the border with the US and Mexico.
The We Build the Wall non-profit raised more than $25m (£22m) from thousands of donors online, with Bannon telling people that he wouldn’t be pocketing a penny of the amount, nor would any others.
However, according to prosecutors in New York, Bannon lied to donors while also diverting some of the cash to two associates.
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Bannon, meanwhile, maintains that he is being persecuted.
District attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement on Thursday: "Stephen Bannon acted as the architect of a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country - including hundreds of Manhattan residents."
New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office has also been working on the case, also said that the right-wing podcaster had taken ‘advantage of his donors' political views to secure millions of dollars which he then misappropriated’, adding that ‘powerful political interests’ who ‘think they are above the law’ must be held to account for their actions.
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Bannon, who faces up to two years in jail, is due to be sentenced next month.
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Jess Hardiman