Courts

Look Who Isn't Paying His Lawyers (Hint: It's Steve Bannon)

It's not that Bannon can't pay, it's that he won't.

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Former Trump Strategist Steve Bannon Arrested On Fraud Charges Related To Crowdfunded Built The Wall Campaign

(Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Looks like controversial figure Steve Bannon is taking a page out of Donald Trump’s book and stiffing his attorneys. That’s right, Bannon reportedly owes “significant” amounts of money to attorneys M. Evan Corcoran and Robert Costello. Corcoran and Costello represented Bannon in his skirmishes with the Department of Justice and at trial on contempt of Congress charges, for which Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison.

As reported by The Daily Beast, it’s not a cash flow issue — it seems to be a choice he’s making:

Bannon’s refusal to fully pay his bills has stunned some of his close advisers who’ve stuck around for years.

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

After all, Bannon is a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, co-founded the right-wing news website Breitbart, made tens of millions off the iconic sitcom Seinfeld, and hangs out with Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui. In fact, he was relaxing, reading a book on Wengui’s yacht just off the coast of Westbrook, Connecticut when he was arrested by FBI special agents in August 2020.

As our Super Bowl queen knows.

Pay me what you owe me

It’s a… strange decision to not pay your attorneys when there’s an appeal pending which seems to leave attorney David Schoen all on his own.

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The legal team’s reluctance to pour any more time or effort into the fight is evident by the lack of activity on their part in the appellate case in the District of Columbia. Schoen appears to be proceeding alone with the appeal, which was filed on Nov. 12 but has yet to move forward.

That’s also not the end of Bannon’s legal woes. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicated him for his alleged role in a scheme to defraud donors to a border wall project. Not the best time to court a reputation for not paying your attorneys.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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