Steve Bannon and Accomplices Long Capitalized Off Trump’s Rise to Power

“Democrats love a good political witch hunt before the elections,” he wrote.

Bannon picked up on that charge on his podcast, “War Room”, on Friday, hardly sounding like someone who only hours earlier was charged with fraud and money laundering, crimes that carry up to 20 years in prison.

“This was to stop and intimidate people that want to talk about the wall. This is to stop and intimidate people that have President Trump’s back on building the wall,” said Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty. “This is a political hit job.”

As for Kolfage, he called him “an American hero”.

A serial entrepreneur, Kolfage started a string of ventures and side businesses over the years.

He has raised money to help mentor wounded veterans and, after one of his news sites was shut down, rallied supporters to Fight4FreeSpeech.

This year, he launched a company to buy up and distribute N95 masks, solicited donations for a lawsuit against Black Lives Matter protesters, and called for a boycott of the NFL and NBA over their embrace of the movement.

Read also: Virginia Man Convicted for Driving Through Black Lives Matter Protest

Kolfage has posted pictures on Instagram of his sleek, Jupiter Marine fishing boat named “Warfighter”, which recently participated in a boat parade for Trump’s campaign. The government is now seeking to seize it.

“He has a knack for seeing what is missing from someone’s project or company and helping them fill that gap,” said Dustin Stockton, a partner in his mask company and We Build the Wall who was not charged on Thursday.

“Despite his significant disabilities, he is upbeat and optimistic about the future, which people find inspiring.”

Stockton said federal agents served him and his wife with subpoenas and with warrants for their cellphones. He would not comment on the case beyond that.

Another charged Thursday, 49-year-old Timothy Shea of Castle Rock, Colorado, owns an energy drink company called Winning Energy whose cans bear a cartoon superhero image of Trump and claim to contain 12 ounces of “liberal tears”.

Also indicted was Andrew Badolato, 56 of Sarasota, Florida, describes himself as a venture capitalist on his personal website and a “hobbyist conservative” enjoying a “new lease on life after suffering a major heart attack in December 2014 and being brought back to life”.

Steve Bannon has known Badolato for years, joining forces nearly two decades ago in a publicly-traded nasal spray company called SinoFresh Healthcare that eventually got tangled up in a legal dispute about corporate funds and other issues.