Bannon partners had history of cashing in on Trump movement

And the third is an ex-columnist for Breitbart and an entrepreneur who has left a trail of failed businesses.The men charged along with former White House strategist Steve Bannon in a scheme to skim hundreds of thousands of dollars from a crowd-funded project to build a border wall came together through a shared devotion to Trump and a rich, sometimes checkered, history of trying to make money off his political movement.Prosecutors say their promises not to take even a penny from the more than $25 million in donations turned out to be lies, allowing them to make such purchases as a luxury Range Rover, a fishing boat, home renovations and cosmetic surgery.Some court observers believe at least some of the participants believed they could get away with it because their man was in the White House.“This cast of characters was using Bannon as a front to get the people behind them,” said David S. But the president on Thursday said he didn’t like the crowd-funding effort to build a private wall and considers such matters the role of government.In a tweet last month, Trump said the project involved a “tiny” stretch of a wall in a tricky area and “was only done to make me look bad.”The organizers solicited donations as recently as days before the indictment, riling up Trump supporters on a Facebook page and promoting the wall as a solution to drug trafficking and illegal immigration.Some followers voiced skepticism, complaining that enough progress on the wall was being made and that they had not received their purchase of autographed steel bollards the group advertised.“What’s the hold up?” Dan Mineart asked under one post.