Steve Bannon, a former adviser to US President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to deceiving donors who paid to a private plot to construct a wall along the US-Mexico border. Bannon, 71, pleaded guilty to New York state charges as part of a deal with prosecutors that saved him prison time. Bannon was indicted in 2022 for his role in the “We Build the Wall” initiative, which involved private funding to build the southern border wall. Bannon, one of the masterminds behind Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, faced criminal charges in connection with the plot but was granted a pardon at the end of the Republican president’s first term.

The right-wing ideologue pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a state charge of involvement in a “scheme to defraud in the first degree” and received a three-year conditional release with no jail time or restitution.