Steve Bannon stiffs lawyers amid increased legal peril

Steve Bannon has been stiffing his lawyers who represented him in a series of criminal cases.

The former White House chief strategist is trying to find new attorneys to defend him against money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud after refusing to pay the lawyers who represented him against contempt of Congress charges, three sources told The Daily Beast.

“I don’t have any reason to believe he doesn’t have money,” said one associate.

The sources told the website that Bannon owes "significant" amounts of money to attorneys E. Even Corcoran and Robert Costello, who spent months wrangling with the Department of Justice in 2021 and 2022 before Bannon's conviction for contempt.

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Bannon at one point last summer owed Costello more than $100,000, according to one source with direct knowledge of the situation, and he still owes the former federal prosecutor quite a bit, according to the two other sources.

Costello has defended Bannon for years in cases involving his GoFundMe campaign called "We Build the Wall" and his involvement in the U.S. Capitol attack, and he helped the right-wing podcaster secure a pardon from Donald Trump, and federal prosecutors seized his emails and phone logs in the Jan. 6 case.

Bannon has appealed his conviction in the Jan. 6 obstruction case, and U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols noted at his sentencing in November the appeal might likely result in a reversal or new trial, so the sources are baffled that he hasn't paid the attorneys who have shepherded him through the case.

“The tragedy here is the judge said he expects it to be reversed on appeal," one source said. "Highly unusual."

David Schoen, who represented Trump at his second impeachment trial, filed his appeal on Nov. 12 and appears to be the only attorney working on that, but it hasn't moved forward since that initial filing -- although he tells The Daily Beast that he's been paid for his work.

“I can tell you unequivocally that I have been paid and the withdrawal motion has nothing to do with that, nor is it a delay tactic,” Schoen said.