'We Build the Wall' struggling, lawyer tells 2nd Circuit

[struggle4progress]

By Tom McParland | June 01, 2021 at 05:46 PM

An attorney for We Build the Wall Inc. told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that his client was effectively broke, as the company sought to undo a district court order blocking it from accessing $1.4 million in funds while its leaders were under federal indictment.

Attorney Justin Weddle, who represents We Build the Wall and its general counsel Kris Kobach, told a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based appeals court that the group had “expended none of its money” since last August, when leaders, including founder Brian Kolfage, were charged with conspiring to defraud investors into a private effort to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border ...

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2021/06/01/we-build-the-wall-group-struggling-lawyer-tells-2nd-circuit-panel-as-it-appeals-order-freezing-1-4m/?slreturn=20210503092211

[Wounded Bear]

1. So they want access to the embezzled funds to defend against the embezzlement charges?

Yeah, let's do that.

[struggle4progress]

2. Judge denies Kolfage's request to tap We Build the Wall accounts to pay his lawyers

Jim Thompson
Northwest Florida Daily News
(11 May 2021)

... Kolfage was represented by a federal public defender, but plans to retain private counsel. His search for counsel will be the subject of a June 14 status conference in the case, unless he has counsel on record before that date.

Kolfage had been set for arraignment on the charges last week, but the date was moved to give him time to retain private counsel. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Goldberg noted that the proceedings already had been continued once since the May 4 indictment by a grand jury. Goldberg suggested to Kolfage that the court likely would not continue to set status conferences to allow him to continue his search for counsel. As a matter of policy, Goldberg did not answer questions after the arraignment ...

https://www.nwfdailynews.com/story/news/courts/2021/05/11/brian-kolfage-seeks-we-built-wall-funds-legal-costs/5019645001/

[struggle4progress]

3. Kolfage enters not guilty plea on federal tax charges

Jim Thompson
Northwest Florida Daily News
(3 June 2021)

MIRAMAR BEACH — The day after he was indicted in Florida on federal tax charges, local wounded warrior Brian Kolfage was dealt another legal setback in New York, where he is under federal indictment for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The New York ruling has a direct bearing on whether Kolfage will be able to cover the costs of his counsel in that case.

Indictments in both cases center around We Build the Wall Inc., the Florida nonprofit organization founded by Kolfage in 2019. The nonprofit was created as a follow-on to a 2018 GoFundMe campaign originated by Kolfage to collect donations to augment federal funding of the U.S.-Mexico border wall construction during the administration of then-President Donald Trump ...

https://www.nwfdailynews.com/story/news/courts/2021/05/11/brian-kolfage-seeks-we-built-wall-funds-legal-costs/5019645001/

[struggle4progress]

4. Crowdfunders of Border Wall lose ground at 2nd Circuit

June 1, 2021
THOMAS F. HARRISON

... With the government flagging every dime the group collected as the proceeds of fraud, We Build the Wall’s general counsel Kris Kobach is lobbying nevertheless to free up those assets. Before his bid to represent Kansas in the U.S. Senate sank in last year’s Republican primaries, Kobach was the twice-elected Kansas secretary of state. His losing defense of voter ID laws in that role would earn him court sanctions but also a stint as vice chair of President Donald Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity. The group meant to bolster Trump’s first-term claims of rampant voter fraud disbanded without issuing a single report.


At the hearing Tuesday on We Build the Wall, Kobach’s claims found a skeptical audience in U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, sitting on the three-judge appeals panel by designation.

“If the boss of an organized crime family formed an LLC and had all his capos pay money into the LLC instead of giving it to him in cash, can’t the government reach the LLC?” the judge asked ...

https://www.courthousenews.com/crowdfunders-of-border-wall-lose-ground-at-2nd-circuit/

[marble falls]

5. Dammit, your honor, these lawyers are just not going to pay themselves!!!

[dawg day]

6. This is the case Bannon got pardoned for, right?

This Kolfage must have been hoping for a similar gift, but I guess he didn't have enough dirt on Trump to merit the Bannon treatment.

Wonder if Bannon has been deposed about this.

[struggle4progress]

7. yup

[gratuitous]

8. My my

All that boasting about what a fund-raising juggernaut they'd created turns out to be just so much hot air. Who could have guessed? And now the grifters (Kris Kobach? Really?) don't have the money to hire competent attorneys. Sad!

[msfiddlestix]

9. Well, I be darned. I'll take me a cup o' solace from this report

I wasn't aware of any these proceedings or events.. So happy to read about how splendidly it's going for these racists pigs.

KnR!

[tanyev]

10. We Bilked All Ya'll

[Initech]

11. I have to say I am loving watching the collapse of team MAGA!

[onethatcares]

12. sell the damn boat

f Kolfage and the wall he wants to build.

Karma is a beautiful thing.

[MissMillie]

13. They're broke? Because they can't access money they stole from people?

Maybe they should get jobs.

I hear Burger King is hiring at $7.25/hr.