Trump Jr. distances from Bannon group, says he attended ‘single’ event

President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. is seeking to distance himself from the “We Build The Wall” crowdfunding campaign after former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and three others were arrested and charged with defrauding donors. 

A spokesperson for Trump Jr., whose name is listed on the organization’s website as having endorsed it, said he had minimal involvement with the We Build The Wall group. 

“Don gave one speech at a single We Build The Wall event over a year ago with a group of angel moms and besides that, has no involvement with their organization,” spokesperson Amanda Miller said in a statement. 

A website for the campaign still included endorsements from Trump Jr., as well as former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraising official for the 2020 campaign, as of Thursday morning. 

Trump Jr. “never gave them permission to use him as a testimonial on their website and was unaware they included him as one until today’s media reports about it,” Miller said. 

“His previous praise of the group was based on what he was led to believe about their supposed intention to help build the wall on the southern border and if he and others were deceived, the group deserves to be held accountable for their actions,” Miller added. 

Bannon, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea were arrested and charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors who contributed to the campaign, which raised more than $25 million, for a private border wall, the U.S. attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York said Thursday. 

President Trump also sought to distance himself from Bannon on Thursday morning after the arrest. 

“I feel very badly. I haven’t been dealing with him for a very long period of time, as most of the people in this room know,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 

He also said he has no knowledge about the We Build The Wall campaign, but said he disagreed with the project because it purported to raise private funds in order to pay for the construction of the wall at the southern border with Mexico.