GRIFTER: Trump bestie is stiffing his lawyers and no one wants to touch him
Trump loyalist and grifter Steve Bannon hasn’t been paying his legal bills.
This brazen move could come back to bite the War Room host as he tries to find new attorneys for the upcoming criminal trial for his “We Build the Wall” scam.
Those who have defended the embattled right-wing operative are surprisingly shocked.
“I don’t have any reason to believe he doesn’t have money,” an associate told The Daily Beast.
High-profile attorneys Evan Corcoran and Robert Costello have reportedly been stiffed by their client whose been the subject of multiple criminal charges prosecuted by the Department of Justice since 2020.
Bannon is said to owe Costello a hefty six-figure sum as recently as last summer, according to the Daily Beast report, which said:
“Bannon owed Costello alone more than $100,000, according to a source directly familiar with Bannon’s unpaid bills. And Bannon still owes Costello a ton of money, according to two other sources familiar with the situation.”
Costello’s professional relationship with the former Trump adviser goes back years. when the former federal prosecutor defended Bannon against charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud after his client misappropriated millions raised from MAGA to fund a private border wall in Sunland Park, NM.
It was Costello who helped Bannon secure a pardon from then-President Donald Trump, but the defense attorney’s fealty to his client would come at a price.
Costello found himself on the wrong side of the FBI, which seized email and call logs belonging to the lawyer.
In July, the longtime defender of Republican interests asked to withdraw as legal counsel in Bannon’s Contempt of Congress trial in anticipation of being called as a witness.
“Due to the fact that I have been the only individual who interacted with the Select Committee and that Mr. Bannon’s sole basis of information about the facts and the law concerning this matter came about through communications with me, there has always been the possibility that I might be called as a witness in this matter,” Costello said.
Bannon raked in millions through shady dealings such as the one that linked him to smash hit Seinfeld, raising questions as to where the money went.
As the Justice Department closes in on Bannon, the search for a new legal team hasn’t been going smoothly.
Refusing to communicate directly with those representing him, Bannon has reportedly reached out to multiple high-profile firms with no luck.
Recent revelations that the conspiratorial misinformation pusher doesn’t pay his debts are certain to complicate Bannon’s quest to both secure new counsel and avoid prison.
Good luck.
Original reporting by Jose Pagliery at The Daily Beast.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
