President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was pulled from a luxury yacht and arrested Thursday on allegations that he and three associates ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall, making him the latest in a long list of Trump allies to be charged with a crime.
The organisers of the “We Build The Wall” group portrayed themselves as eager to help the president build a “big beautiful” barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, as he promised during the 2016 campaign. They raised more than $25 million from thousands of donors and pledged that 100% of the money would be used for the project.
But according to the criminal charges unsealed Thursday, much of the money never made it to the wall. Instead, it was used to line the pockets of group members, including Bannon, who served in Trump's White House and worked for his campaign. He allegedly took over $1 million, using some to secretly pay co-defendant Brian Kolfage, the founder of the project, and to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.
Hours after his arrest, Bannon pleaded not guilty during an appearance in a Manhattan federal court. He is the latest addition to a startlingly long list of Trump associates who have been prosecuted, including his former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, whom Bannon replaced, his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Trump has also made clear that he is willing to use his near-limitless pardon power to help political allies escape legal jeopardy, most recently commuting the sentence of longtime political adviser Roger Stone.
Bannon was taken into custody around 7 a.m. by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service on a 150-foot (45-meter) luxury yacht called Lady May, which was off the coast of Connecticut, authorities said. The boat is owned by exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and currently for sale for nearly $28 million. According to Marine Traffic, a commercial tracking service, the vessel's transponder signal went dark on June 17, shortly after it departed a port in Connecticut en route to Miami, potentially indicating its beacon was inoperable or had been turned off.
At his hearing, Bannon appeared by video with his hands cuffed in front of him and a white mask covering most of his face. He rocked back and forth on a chair in a holding cell with his lawyers on the telephone. The magistrate judge approved Bannon’s release on $5 million bail, secured by $1.75 million in assets.
Neither Bannon, nor his spokesperson or attorney responded to requests for comment Thursday. Kolfage did not respond either. Also charged were Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea, the owner of an energy drink company called Winning Energy. The company's cans feature a cartoon superhero image of Trump and claim to contain “12 oz. of liberal tears.” Shea appeared at a brief virtual hearing in Denver.
Other prominent members of the wall group included former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, its general counsel; Erik Prince, founder of the controversial security firm Blackwater; former Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado; and former major league baseball pitcher Curtis Schilling. They were not named in the indictment.
After the arrest, Trump quickly distanced himself from Bannon and the project.
“When I read about it, I didn’t like it. I said this is for government, this isn’t for private people. And it sounded to me like showboating,” he told reporters at the White House, adding that he felt “very badly" about the situation.
An immigration plan unveiled by Trump last year included a proposal to allow the public to donate toward his long-promised wall, as the Kolfage group had originally said was its mission before shifting its focus to private construction. But Trump later denounced the project publicly, tweeting last month that he “disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) section of wall, in a tricky...

COMMENT
I was contacted by an Auckland general practitioner last night regarding what's actually happening in clinics at the moment, compared to what the Government says is happening.
And hasn't this been the theme of the Covid response? The giant disconnect between what we are told is happening, versus what's actually happening on the front line.
Some of the things we are hearing from the ministers is, in the words of this GP, "BS".


Over the past few days we have been told - at these sole sources of truth, the 1pm briefings - that the labs are turning tests around fast. That they're happy with the pace of Covid test results, that's it all under control. That they can turn tests around in 48 hours.
In reality, not the case.
General practitioners were in fact notified via email from the three Auckland district health boards yesterday, that it can take up to five days for notification of results.
Five days. Not 48 hours.
These swabbing delays are having a huge impact on essential services, given people are in isolation until their swab comes back.
We're also hearing from listeners of waiting five days or more for test results - in limbo all that time, unable to go anywhere and, for essential workers, unable to work.
One nurse at a GP practice, an essential worker, claimed to have waited more than a week for her results. She was then told her swab had been lost and she needed to re-test, and start the waiting game all over again.

The other issue general practitioners are concerned about is why both GPs and CBACS - those community based testing centres - are expected to swab international aircrew within 48 hours of their return, and are therefore being inundated with aircrew testing. GPs believe this should be an Air NZ employment issue, and a service Air NZ provides its staff, as opposed to overloading GPs and CBACS.


Many of these general practices are already operating at capacity and we hear constantly from people saying they've been turned away from testing, so it would seem an obvious solution to help spread the load.

On top of that, GPs say the pressure to swab all these aircrew - alongside the general public - puts members of the public at risk as well as their medical staff.
Medical staff also want to know what the Government's plans are for swabbing or screening healthcare workers in the community and hospitals, given their concern they are likely to be the next most obvious high-risk category after border staff.Still, many questions remain unanswered.
And still, statements are being made from the "podium of truth" which don't quite match reality.

A new Wellington festival has managed to attract some of the biggest names in Kiwi music.
The full line-up has today been announced for Downtown Shakedown, being held this December at Waitangi Park.
Taking to the stage will be Benee, Fat Freddy's Drop, BROODS, L.A.B  Sola Rosa and Sunshine Soundsystem.
Director Andrew Tuck told Kate Hawkesby the upside of the pandemic is having acts of this calibre performing here rather than overseas.
"It's really exciting for us to be able to put that in to Wellington and get Wellingtonians and people a chance to travel away for the weekend."
Benee, Fat Freddy's Drop and LAB will also headline Rhythm and Vines alongside Shapeshifter.

Embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy reversed course Tuesday, saying that all changes being made to the Postal Service would be suspended until after the November 3 election, just as 20 Democratic states announced plans to file federal lawsuits.
DeJoy said that some of the deferred decisions mean that retail hours at post offices will not change, mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain in place and no mail processing facilities will be closed.
At least 20 Democratic attorneys general across the country are launching a multi-pronged legal effort to push back on the recent changes that disrupted mail delivery across the country and triggered accusations that Trump and his appointees are trying to undermine mail-in voting.
The Democratic attorneys general plan to argue that DeJoy is illegally changing mail procedures ahead of the 2020 election as the Post Office braces for an unusually high number of mail-in ballots as voters look to avoid casting ballots at polling centers where they could potentially contract the coronavirus.
DeJoy "acted outside of his authority to implement changes to the postal system, and did not follow the proper procedures under federal law," according to a statement from Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
The USPS and DeJoy have maintained that the changes are intended to improve the agency's dire financial situation. DeJoy also rejects accusations that he made these changes at Trump's behest.
At least two lawsuits are being filed Tuesday. One led by Washington state will be joined by Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Another group of state Democratic attorneys general are filing a similar lawsuit in a Pennsylvania federal court. These states include California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maine and North Carolina.
The lawsuit led by Washington state makes liberal use of Trump's words and tweets against mail-in voting and connects them to the DeJoy's actions, saying the President has attacked mail-in voting more than 70 times "without supporting evidence."
"DeJoy instituted these 'transformative' changes following repeated statements from President Trump evincing a partisan political motive for making it harder to vote by mail, such as his statement that 'MAIL-IN VOTING WILL . . . LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY.'"
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said following the announcement that his office "will continue to monitor for any signs of disruption to service," and urged USPS to permanently back off on the changes.
"It is not enough to merely suspend operational changes, they need to be reversed. There should not be cuts to postal service, particularly during this pandemic," he said in a statement.
DeJoy "felt the heat. And that's what we were trying to do, is to make it too hot for them to handle," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said at event hosted by Politico.
Pelosi also said Tuesday that the Postal Service legislation Democrats are set to introduce soon will include their initial $25 billion ask, as CNN reported Monday, along with Rep. Carolyn Maloney's bill prohibiting operational changes, which the speaker said is still necessary even after DeJoy's announcement.
"I don't want to give the Republicans any reason to vote against this, because we want this to become law," she said. "We want the President to sign it."
The Postal Service is facing intense scrutiny from congressional Democrats, who announced earlier this week that they're ramping up their probe into what they call "recent, sweeping and dangerous operational changes at the Postal Service that are slowing the mail and jeopardizing the integrity of the election."
DeJoy is set to testify before a Senate committee on Friday and the House Oversight Committee next...

The Green Party is backing calls to double New Zealanders' minimum sick leave from five to 10 days and will campaign on making the change under the Holidays Act.
Bolstering sick leave would ensure sick workers could stay home which would strengthen the country's response to Covid-19, said the party's workplace relations spokeswoman Jan Logie.
"Self-isolating when unwell is a crucial part of the public health response. However, it shouldn't be working people having to shoulder the burden of this by being made to take unpaid sick leave," Logie said.
The Green Party, if re-elected, would also remove the requirement for a medical certificate for short duration illnesses including cold and flu.


It is also promising to explore a rebate scheme for small businesses, to ensure they can adjust to the increased provisions without adverse effects on their business.
"The Ministry of Health has rightfully set very firm guidelines for people to stay home if they're sick. However, the Government must ensure people are able to do so without worrying about paying the bills," said Logie.
The Covid-19 leave support scheme was extended this week following the outbreak in Auckland which is available to any worker advised to self-isolate by the Ministry of Health and isn't able to work from home.
The caveat of the business suffering a 30 per cent financial loss because of the impact of the pandemic was also dropped.
Logie said the Greens welcomed the extension, "but this is only a short-term solution".
When the Government was putting together the scheme during the March outbreak, officials were worried loss of income was a barrier to people self-isolating which was vital for the public health response.
Advice to Cabinet showed it's was common practice for businesses to just give their employees the five day statutory minimum which is typically exhausted - or nearly exhausted - each year.
The situation was "worse" for workers in vulnerable categories, like casual employees, officials said.
"These workers may feel compelled to go to work, even in light of the broadened requirements to self-isolate. This is especially likely for the lower paid, more vulnerable workers, where they are less able to meet ongoing costs of living.
"Many workers who are contractors are in this category, along with self-employed owner/operators, and have no leave entitlements."
New Zealand's five day statutory minimum under the Holidays Act is only awarded after being with a company for six months and is at the lower end of OECD countries.
Australia provides 10 days while Sweden provides 14 and Germany offers six weeks however Canada also offers five.
The Green's election promise has beaten Labour to the punch, with it also widely expected to campaign on a policy promising to increase sick leave requirements.
The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) has been also been calling for extending sick leave to 10 days and removing the requirement for doctors' notes and has amassed almost 10,000 signatures on its petition.
CTU resident Richard Wagstaff said five days' sick leave was "simply not enough".
"For most people that have used their sick leave entitlement the choice is to go to work sick or stay home and not be paid. Most people cannot afford to go without a day's pay. So many will be forced to go to work sick."
Logie said their Poverty Action Plan would also reform ACC in a way which provides unlimited top-ups for people who are unwell in the long term.
"Covid-19 has shown us that we must do more to ensure people are able to take leave when they need it, so we need to think long-term about how we approach sick leave."

Jacinda Ardern's unlikely to follow Scott Morrison's lead - and force people to have a COVID-19 vaccine.
The Australian leader says he'd expect it to be as mandatory as it can be, with medical exemptions.
Our Prime Minister says New Zealand has achieved herd immunity with vaccines so far, and she expects to see the take-up needed for this virus.
Ardern says people’s freedoms are affected by COVID, so a wide-reaching vaccination programme is in everyone's interest.
ACT Party leader David Seymour told Kate Hawkesby politically and practically, the New Zealand government would struggle to get everyone to sign up to getting vaccinated.
"And the question is, what rights does the community have to protect themselves against people who refuse to go along with a vaccine which is safe and beneficial."
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COMMENT
The Government is going hard out to prove there's a plan right now, and I don't blame them.
They were criticised in the House this week on the basis they didn't have a plan, and a day later I note Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern used the word "plan" several times in her 1pm briefing.
Yes it's a "tricky" virus, but they've got a plan now. That plan now involves boosting the defence force's presence at isolation hotels.


Which is smart given one of the criticisms has been that the Ministry of Health had been burdened with too much logistical and practical work, above and beyond the scope of its ability. A ministry whose focus has been collecting and processing data, should perhaps not be dipping its toes into the avenues of software app development and implementation, distribution of PPE, and management of testing protocols.
Hence we now have the very wise decision to "give them some support" as the PM put it.
Senior civil servant Heather Simpson and veteran business executive Sir Bryan Roche have been put in to oversee things.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield rejected suggestions this was a vote of no confidence in him and his department, but I'm not sure how else you can view it.

The Ministry of Health hasn't done its job properly.
We have the examples with the lack of testing, the lack of controls, the lack of checks and balances, the flu vaccine fiasco, the list goes on. Disturbingly, at one of the press briefings this week we were told one of the reporting problems had been due to testing data numbers being "put in the wrong column". I kid you not.
Which is why we need more real-world experience assisting in our response here.
Business knows you need to delegate, and you need stringent checks and balances in place, you need follow up, you need targets and expectations met. The rigour this government talks about so much was just not happening, and that's the difference between the public and private sector.
The private sector knows how to run things because it knows the consequences. You are before the board explaining your actions faster than you can say "epic fail" if you stuff it up. You're likely to lose your job, your livelihood and your reputation. There's a lot on the line.
In the public sector it seems the rules are a bit looser, there is a lot of side-stepping on accountability, a lot of buck passing, there's fewer checks and balances. Which is why bringing in 500 more defence personnel, and two extra people to oversee the ministry, is a good start.
This response needs as many eyeballs as possible on it.
This "tricky virus" as the PM keeps calling it, needs the full weight of a serious and competent response.
Not a series of knee-jerk reactions made on the hop by ministers the Prime Minister continues to show little confidence in.

A union leader is calling on the Government and health officials to quickly find the source of a hotel worker who contracted Covid-19.
Unite Union general secretary Gerard Hehir today said it was very important to drill down and find what happened with the mystery case at the Rydges Hotel in central Auckland.
Speaking to Kate Hawkesby, Hehir described communication between the Government and the Ministry of Health on the testing issue so far as less than ideal.
All staff and guests are being re-tested at Rydges after the maintenance worker's positive test. He apparently did not come into contact with any travellers.
The worker went to work with a cough for two days, but put it down to a pre-existing health condition. He passed a temperature check at work but tested positive when mandatory testing of staff was introduced late last week.
The strain of Covid is different to that involved in the big Auckland cluster that has forced the city into a two-week level-3 lockdown.
Hehir said it was particularly concerning that no one has figured out what happened and how.
"Our members are mostly room attendants who clean the rooms in isolation facilities when guests leave and this maintenance worker has obviously a similar pattern of work to them," Hehir said.
To be fair, he said, the isolation set-up was an extremely complex operation akin to a new prison system.
"This is going to go on for months and months and maybe years. We really need to get the processes down very clear, and testing needs to be done properly and efficiently," said Hehir.
He said his members who work alongside people with Covid want to know when they should be tested, saying they could be the "eyes and ears" of making sure the safety systems work.
Yesterday, the Government said some border workers had refused to be tested after it emerged the border-testing regime had not been up to scratch.
Hehir said union members had expected to be tested, but haven't known how often they should be tested, nor did he know of any union members who have resisted being tested.
He said it was unclear to union members what happens if they do not have sick leave, particularly if they have run out or only started work and do not have sick leave.
Hehir said there must not be any disincentive for staff not feeling well to take leave or self-isolate if they had been tested or showed any symptoms.
"They are low-wage workers. If they think they are going to lose money, then they are less likely to put their hands up and be tested or take a precautionary approach, which is what is needed," Hehir said.

A report by the Chief Ombudsman shows mixed messages and mixed bubbles at aged care facilities contributed to potential infection spread.
A review of six rest homes during April and May shows infection controls were in place, but there was a lack of testing, confusion around correct use of PPE and lax regulation around the use of 'bubbles'.
Peter Boshier told Kate Hawkesby more training and clarity was needed.
‘Staff were sometimes moving between bubbles, and that should be avoided during Level 4 in particular.”
More than half of the current New Zealand death toll were residents from Rosewood rest home in Christchurch.
Boshier says more clarity was needed around best practice for PPE.
“Staff should be trained on the occasions when PPE should and must be used, it’s the inconsistency and irregularity which needs more time and care.”
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UK school students will now receive the grades their teachers predicted for them in their critically-important A-level and GCSE exams, after regulators announced a dramatic U-turn following a national controversy and protests over exam results.
English, Welsh and Northern Irish regulators said Monday that A-levels, which determine university entrance and are usually taken by 18-year-olds, would no longer be determined by a controversial algorithm.
After the exams were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, students were instead graded based on an algorithm -- the results of which were announced last Thursday.
This saw close to 40% of students' A-level grades in England downgraded from those predicted by their teachers, according to the Office for Qualifications and Exam Regulation (Ofqual).
More than 200,000 results were downgraded, changing the futures of tens of thousands of students who needed set grades to get into university.
Many students lost out on places at their chosen universities because they were not given the grades they were predicted. Campaigners say that the downgrading disproportionately affected students from more disadvantaged and diverse schools.
The widespread downgrading left young people heartbroken and sparked mass protests, with students seen burning their results in London's Parliament Square.
In an interview after the U-turn was announced on Monday afternoon, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said he was "incredibly sorry for all those students who have been through this."
Williamson said the government had tried to "ensure that we have the fairest possible system," but that there were "unfairnesses" in the way the grades were allocated.
"Over the weekend it became clearer to me that there were a ... number of students who were getting grades that frankly they shouldn't have been getting," he said, adding that it was "apparent that action needed to be taken."
"We understand this has been a distressing time for students, who were awarded exam results last week for exams they never took," said Roger Taylor, Chair of the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), in a statement.
"The pandemic has created circumstances no one could have ever imagined or wished for," Taylor said. "We want to now take steps to remove as much stress and uncertainty for young people as possible -- and to free up heads and teachers to work towards the important task of getting all schools open in two weeks."
"After reflection, we have decided that the best way to do this is to award grades on the basis of what teachers submitted," he added.
Center assessment grades (those predicted by students' schools) will now be used for final-year A-level students, and for GCSE results that younger (usually 16-year-old) students will receive later this week.
Taylor said that Ofqual had been asked by the government to develop a system for awarding grades that maintained standards, but recognized "that it has also caused real anguish and damaged public confidence."
Thomas Chandler, from Richmond in North Yorkshire, was predicted three A*s by his teachers. He needed an A* in English or German to get into Cambridge University to study Classics, but both were downgraded to As and he was rejected.
"It's incredibly frustrating and upsetting," he told CNN. "It could quite negatively impact my mental health. Financially, obviously it's also very hard."
He said the way the UK government had handled the situation had been "atrocious."
A document released by Ofqual showed that 40% of students received results one or two grades lower than their advance grades, according to the non-profit Good Law Project; 3.5% of A-level results -- more than 30,000 -- were reduced by two or more grades.
U-turn too late for some?
Ofqual initially said that students would be able to appeal their results for free, before saying on Sunday...