In second loss for Kobach Monday, judge says he can’t get paid by We Build the Wall
In a second defeat in federal courts Monday for Kris Kobach, a New York judge refused the former Kansas secretary of state’s effort to pay himself legal fees from a nonprofit whose principals are charged with fraud.
Analisa Torres, a U.S. District Court judge in the southern district of New York, denied Kobach’s motion to intervene in a criminal court case involving Steve Bannon, the former confidant of President Donald Trump, and others who are accused of fraud in their handling of donor funds to the nonprofit We Build the Wall.
We Build the Wall hired Kobach as its general counsel.
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court declined to take up Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship voting law that Kobach wrote when he was secretary of state, which affirmed lower court rulings that found the law was unconstitutional.
We Build the Wall raised more than $25 million starting in 2018 to build a private wall near Sunland Park, New Mexico, as a small supplement to Trump’s broader goal of building a wall along the United States-Mexico border meant to keep undocumented immigrants from entering the country.
Donors were promised the principals of We Build the Wall would take no compensation from the nonprofit.
In August, Bannon, We Build the Wall founder Brian Kolfage and two others were accused by federal prosecutors of using donor proceeds to fund their lavish lifestyles, contrary to their promises. Prosecutors also accuse the defendants of orchestrating a scheme to hide the payments through a shell company and another nonprofit.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty and deny wrongdoing.
The indictment included a request that the defendants forfeit money in various bank accounts that were raised during the course of their alleged criminal acts.
Kobach asked to modify a restraining order that effectively froze money that We Build the Wall had received from donors and that federal prosecutors allege are ill-gotten gains.
“The case (is) against one board member and three other people, including Steve Bannon, involved in We Build the Wall,” Kobach said earlier Monday before the judge’s ruling. “...There is a dispute about whether the funds of the organization — not of the individuals but of the organization — can be freed up for the organization to continue its business. Because the organization wasn’t charged.”
Kobach argued he should be able to tap some of the $1.6 million in donations that We Build the Wall received since Feb. 1, 2020, which was after its website was changed to say that Kolfage would get paid from donor funds after all.
“Thus, donations received well after that date — i.e., the approximately $1.6 million received on or after February 1, 2020 — logically and legally have no nexus to the fraud and are not subject to forfeiture,” Kobach’s attorney argued in a memorandum to the court on Nov. 2.
Torres found that argument unpersuasive, saying that non-parties can’t intervene in criminal cases. Torres sided with the government’s position: Kobach can try to intervene in the forfeiture process if and after the defendants are convicted.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 4:41 PM.
