Steve Bannon Accidentally Admits His Bank Account May Show Evidence Of Fraud

Steve Bannon is in trouble for failing to pay his lawyers, and now his failure to pay could land him in even more trouble. The lawyers that he stiffed are trying to force a court to reveal his bank records so that they can determine if he has the ability to pay and is simply choosing not to, but Bannon filed a motion with the court arguing that revealing the bank statements could possibly implicate him in other criminal activity - So he is pleading the 5th. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Steve Bannon's in a bit of a tough spot here After a recent court filing from Bannon indicated that his bank account may actually contain evidence of criminal activity and Bannon had to make this court filing because his former lawyer, man, by the name of Robert Costello, is actually trying to hold Bannon accountable to pay his legal fees because Costello represented Bannon for quite some time, including in part of the, we build the wall scam, but Bannon never paid Costello. So Costello has gone to court through his law firm, uh, uh, David off Hutcher and Citron DHC, trying to get their money that they are owed for legal services provided to Steve Bannon. And as part of this attempt to recover their fees from Bannon, they have asked the judge to get Steve Bannon's bank, bank statements, right? Let us see what's in his bank account so we even know if he has the ability to pay us. 'cause if he doesn't, then we've gotta go through a whole new set of legal hoops here to get our money from him. So he owes us money, you know, he owes us money. Let us see the bank account. That's not an unreasonable request, but Bannon through his new lawyer, who hopefully he is paying, asked the judge last week, please, for the love of God, do not let them look at our bank statements. 'cause oh man, there could be some stuff in there. Here's what they wrote.

Dhcs taking of post-judgment discovery from Mr. Bannon poses a significant risk of compromising Mr. Bannon's fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, self-incrimination. But they're just, they're just looking at your bank account. They're just looking to see how much money you have and, and what you're spending money on. So what could be in the bank account? Could it be related to the, we build the wall trial that is coming up in May. You don't want them to see that maybe you got large influxes of cash and then spent lavishly on yourself and, oh no, maybe that could be used against you. Now here's the fun part. In a civil case, the Fifth Amendment doesn't exactly work the same way it does in a criminal trial. And because this is a civil matter, it's just the lawyers trying to recoup the money that Bannon owes them. It's not criminal. Therefore, pleading the fifth can be used against the defendant. Now if the judge agrees that the Fifth Amendment would apply here and Bannon does not have to give over his information, then that doesn't necessarily provide anything for the, we build the wall trial. But what it would allow, if this

Case against with the lawyer has to go to trial, the jury in the civil trial would be able to use that against Bannon and issue a pretty quick judgment saying you gotta pay the guy 'cause you're hiding something in your bank account. So again, fifth Amendment cannot be used against you in a criminal trial. Even if you plead the fifth, the jury has to be instructed not to even think that you did it. They don't have to do that in a civil trial. They can go ahead and assume that you are hiding something in a civil trial. So by trying to protect himself from the we build the wall trial, he's also admitting that, oh yeah, there's, there's probably something there.