Trump Ordered $400 Million Payment To Bannon-Border-Linked Construction Company

Steve Bannon just indicted a few short weeks ago, was charged with allegedly using the We Build The Wall donation fund to siphon money into his own pockets. Donald Trump quickly distanced himself from the project, saying that he hadn’t approved of the scheme and hasn’t been involved with Bannon lately. Now it turns out that the president actually ordered Homeland Security to make a $400 million payment to the construction company linked to the border funding scheme. (He’s also reportedly been working with Bannon on re-election matters.)

Though Trump attempted to distance himself from Bannon and the donation scheme, information keeps turning up linking him closely. Raw Story now reports that when the Pentagon’s inspector general looked into a suspicious transfer of nearly half a billion dollars from DHS to Fisher Sand and Gravel, the company linked to Bannon’s wall-building fund, they uncovered that the payment had been made at the urging of Donald Trump and one Republican Senator, Kevin Kramer of North Dakota.

The ACLU is involved in legal efforts to uncover the details and determine where these taxpayer funds ended up.

The Department of Homeland Security, at the urging of President Trump, awarded a $400 million contract to a company affiliated with Steve Bannon’s "We Build the Wall" effort.

We're demanding answers. https://t.co/481EB7Jk8a

— ACLU (@ACLU) August 20, 2020

Also, despite saying that he hasn’t interacted with Bannon in a long time, Trump told an interviewer that Bannon was “involved.” CNN reports the contradictory quote, in which Trump first says that Bannon is “better not being involved” then says “they’re all involved,” this way:

Steve Bannon’s been much better not being involved. He says the greatest president ever. I mean, he’s saying things that I said, “Let’s keep Steve out there, he’s doing a good job.” But they’re all being — they’re all involved.

Bannon has been speaking publicly about the Trump campaign’s strategy, appearing on Fox News just this week to share thoughts.