by - Steve Bannon’s former lawyers have filed a lawsuit saying he hasn’t paid nearly $500,000 in legal bills.
- The firm represented Bannon when he filed his subpoena on Jan. 6 against the company.
- They also represented him in a case about a fundraising scheme to build a border wall between the US and Mexico.
A law firm that previously represented former White House strategist and right-wing motivator Stephen Bannon has filed a lawsuit against him, seeking nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal fees.
The law firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, represented Bannon between November 2020 and November 2022 for criminal cases in Manhattan and Washington, DC. The firm employs Robert Costello, an attorney who represented Bannon in two federal cases.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, says the firm billed Bannon $855,487.87 but was paid only $375,000, leaving an unpaid balance of $480,487.87.
“The defendant raised no objection to the accuracy of the invoices,” the lawsuit says.
Costello represented Bannon as he fought a subpoena from the House of Representatives select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. A jury convicted Bannon of contempt of Congress charges brought by federal prosecutors in Washington, DC. The judge sentenced him to four months in prison but allowed him to remain free while he appealed the case.
Costello also represented Bannon after federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York brought fraud charges against him in August 2020, alleging that he misused funds from a non-profit involved in the US-Mexico border wall to be built when the Donald Trump administration failed to get funds from Congress to build it.
Costello did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Trump pardoned Bannon shortly before he left office, but the Manhattan district attorney’s office brought a similar case against him that is still pending.
Bannon is also in trouble with his lawyers in the Manhattan district attorney case.
At a hearing in January, Bannon’s attorneys David Schoen and John Mitchell asked the presiding judge to let them drop Bannon as clients.
“There’s just been a breakdown in communication,” Schoen said at the hearing, calling their differences over defense strategy “unresolved.”
The judge, Juan Merchan, gave Bannon until the end of February to find new lawyers, or risk being appointed.
