Former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon has a new cause: helping a convicted felon win back his old seat in Congress.
The unlikely pairing of Bannon and former New York Republican Rep. Michael Grimm was confirmed Wednesday, with Grimm tweeting a picture of the two men taken at the headquarters of Breitbart News, which Bannon runs.
Grimm captioned the image: ‘Game on! #MAGA.’
The former lawmaker resigned his position in 2014 after pleading guilty to felony tax evasion. He had also been charged with fraud and perjury.
Steve Bannon (right), a former Donald Trump campaign CEO and White House chief strategist, is backing convicted felon Michael Grimm (left) in his bid to regain the congressional seat he vacated when he went to prison
Grimm spent more than seven months behind bars for hiding more than $1 million in restaurant wages and receipts by paying people in cash – a scheme that allowed him to avoid income and payroll taxes and workers’ comensation payments
Grimm spent more than seven months in prison, beginning in September 2015, after admitting he skirted the tax man by hiding more than $1 million in receipts and wages at Healthalicious, a Manhattan restaurant in which he had a large ownership stake.
The scheme involved using cash from the business to pay workers, which allowed him to avoid paying income taxes, payroll taxes and workers’ compensation costs
Grimm admitted keeping two separate payroll ledgers, one of which was fictitious.
His indictment was originally brought by then-U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, who would later serve as U.S. attorney general.
The hot-tempered lawmaker was best-known in Washington, however, for threatening to throw a reporter from a Capitol Hill balcony for asking about his campaign finances.
Bully pulpit: Rep Michael Grimm, a Republican from Staten Island, was being interviewed by NY1 about the State of the Union address when he became angry with the reporter and threatened him
Off-topic question: NY1 political reporter Michael Scotto attempted to question Grimm about the FBI investigation into his 2010 campaign fundraising, but the politician cut him off and refused to discuss the matter
Grimm went ballistic when NY1 reporter Michael Scotto strayed away from what had been approved interview topics following Barack Obama’s 2014 State of the Union speech.
‘Let me be clear to you,’ he said off-camera after abruptly ending the interview. ‘You ever do that to me again, I’ll throw you off this f***ing balcony.’
‘Why? It’s a valid question,’ Scotto asked.
‘No, no, you’re not man enough, you’re not man enough,’ Grimm sniped back. ‘I’ll break you in half. Like a boy.’
Grimm’s attempt at a political comeback hinges on the proposition that he would be a stronger ally for Trump than Rep. Dan Donovan, who won a special election for Grimm’s seat after he stepped down.
That idea resonates with Bannon, who has said his main goal after leaving the White House is to help conservativee win congressional races to displace Republicans who have been slow to embrace Trump’s agenda.
Bannon has made his post-White House mission seeing as many pro-Trump conservatives elected to Congress as possible
At a campaign launch event on Sunday, Grimm said he believes he ‘will not be judged by my transgressions, but how I rebound in spite of them.’
And, echoing a favorite Trump campaign line, he said he was running because in Washington, ‘the swamp still needs to be drained.’
Grimm has hired Michael Caputo, a former Trump camapign adviser, to work for him.
Caputo told The New York Times that Grimm is ‘joining the Bannon portfolio of Republican challengers to anti-Trump Republican congressmen.’
Caputo joined Grimm in Washington on Wednesday for a strategy session with Bannon.