Hours after leaving office, President Donald Trump forgave his former aide and American far-right ideologue Steve Bannon.
Bannon is accused of participating in a fraud in a virtual donation campaign linked to the construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border, a promise by Trump.
He was arrested in August and then released after paying $ 5 million (R $ 26.8 million) bail.
According to the New York Times, Trump’s advisers have spent the day trying to prevent him from granting pardon to Bannon. The newspaper also said the Republican spoke to Bannon by phone on Tuesday (19).
Bannon has yet to be convicted. In practice, Trump’s forgiveness frees him from fraud charges.
Bannon is the founder of Breitbart, one of the main vehicles of the so-called “alt-right” (alternative right, in English, which brings together personalities of the extreme right and white supremacist groups).
He coordinated Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 and served as chief White House strategist in the early months of the Republican government.
Bannon’s forgiveness is one of Trump’s latest actions in the presidency. Democrat Joe Biden will take office on Wednesday after defeating Trump in the November election – the Republican will not attend the ceremony, breaking with the tradition of transfer of power to the United States.
In addition to Bannon, Trump has also decided to pardon Elliot Broidy, a Republican campaign donor who confessed to conspiring to violate foreign political lobbying laws.
The Republican will not forgive his lawyer, Rudy Giulianni. Trump will not grant forgiveness to his family or to himself, as has been speculated in recent weeks.
Bannon is also close to the Bolsonaro family. He created a project called “The Movement”, to unite right-wing populist leaders around the world, and appointed Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro as his representative in Brazil.