Colorado professor recalls years with Steve Bannon before federal indictment

BOULDER, Colo. (KRDO) -- A University of Colorado Boulder professor was conducting research while traveling with Steve Bannon during Bannon’s efforts to promote a crowdfunded wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Assistant professor Benjamin Teitelbaum says he didn't suspect fraud at the time.

He traveled with Bannon for years and interviewed the former campaign manager for President Donald Trump several times for a book about his far-right beliefs.

Thursday, we learned Bannon was indicted for fraud in connection with the border wall fundraiser.

We spoke to Teitelbaum about his experience accompanying Bannon to the We Build the Wall unveiling in New Mexico while doing research for his book “War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers.”

Q: Why did you initially want to follow Steve Bannon and what was the intrigue behind him as the subject of your book?

A: I consider myself an ethnographer, so that means I do research by being imbedded for a long period of time and getting to know the people I write about. I worked with Steve Bannon in 2018, not just studying him, but studying kind of a network of ideologues who follow pretty archaean and strange philosophy.

Q: Bannon, among three others, has now been indicted on federal charges accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering. Did you ever believe this campaign was a scam?

A: No, I didn't suspect any foul play of this particular kind. At first, what I was overhearing didn't make any sense to me. I had never really thought of, heard about, or thought of a privately citizen-funded border wall. At that point, all the media focus had been on getting Trump to build this wall, so it was a peculiar thing.

Q: There is a Colorado connection, many of these donations and checks were being sent to a P.O. box in Castle Rock, did you know that at the time?

A: I did not know about this Colorado connection, either, so. He had at least 20 projects going on when I was following him -- probably far more -- and there is no place to see them all laid out, and there is no spreadsheet listing them or anything. The amount of money and people moving around this guy is pretty staggering.

Q: Knowing what you know now, can you think back on any red flags?

A: Across the period of two years, he was living a lifestyle like I have never seen before: the most exclusive hotels, traveling constantly, treating people to lavish dinners, courting people and everyone around him in limousines.

Q: Are you surprised by this outcome?

A: What we're seeing in this indictment is a fairly long-term demonstration of a conscious effort to evade financial law. I did not expect him to make that kind of mistake, especially for what in his world is relatively little money. We're talking about a couple hundred thousand dollars out of a budget of $1.25 million. It surprised me because what is shown in the indictment is not a mistake that someone makes and perhaps runs into legal trouble for, this was a longterm deliberate scheme and apparently poorly executed and covered up.