Steven Bannon's refusal to pay his lawyer close to $500K in legal fees may end up inadvertently exposing more evidence of financial fraud by the former Donald Trump adviser.
According to a report from the Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery, Bannon stiffed longtime attorney Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor, and a judge has ordered him to pay the $480,487 that is way overdue.
For his part, Bannon has asked a judge to keep Costello's law firm from reviewing his bank statements, with Pagliery writing, "a request that has required Bannon to awkwardly concede that his personal finances likely have evidence that could bolster the Manhattan District Attorney’s case against him," involving fraudulent fundraising to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
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According to the report, Bannon's current attorney, Harlan Protass, admitted as much in a recent filing, writing of Costello's law firm, "DHC’s taking of post-judgment discovery from Mr. Bannon poses a significant risk of compromising Mr. Bannon’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination."
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As the Beast's Pagliery explained, "Protass also argued that subjecting Bannon to questions under oath from the aggrieved law firm’s attorneys 'also poses a significant risk' for the same reason: he might say something damning that could bolster two ongoing criminal cases against him."
The Beast report added, "Bannon bizarrely ghosted his own lawyers when the DA’s case got rolling in January 2023, the first signs that he was worsening his own situation. And his refusal to pay Costello seemed like a particularly stinging insult, given that Costello found himself on the wrong end of an FBI surveillance effort for working with Bannon."
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