A federal judge declared a mistrial on Tuesday in the case of Timothy Shea, a Colorado man accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a nonprofit group that had collected $25 million to privately fulfill Donald J. Trump’s promise to create a barrier between the United States and Mexico.
The declaration came after 11 jurors sent a note last week to Judge Analisa Torres of Federal District Court in Manhattan, asking that she remove the 12th, who they said had spoken of a “government witch hunt” and refused to deliberate based on evidence.
The note, which Judge Torres read aloud in court, said the 12th juror had exhibited “political bias,” claiming fellow jurors were “liberals” who had reached a verdict before hearing evidence. “Not true at all,” the others wrote.
Judge Torres had urged the jurors to keep deliberating on the wire-fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy and falsifying records charges after receiving the note last Thursday. She acknowledged on Tuesday that they were at an insurmountable impasse.
“I want to thank you for your service as jurors, Judge Torres told them shortly after 2 p.m. “I am declaring a mistrial.”
Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement shortly after the decision was announced that he planned to retry the case. The mistrial, he said, “in no way lessens our resolve or belief in the powerful and compelling evidence that we strongly believe proves his guilt.”
Mr. Shea had been charged with falsifying records and conspiring to commit wire fraud and launder money from the nonprofit group, We Build the Wall Inc. Prosecutors said that he had conspired with an Air Force veteran named Brian Kolfage and with Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, to siphon money from the wall fund for personal expenses like home renovations, a luxury SUV and a truckload of Trump-themed energy drinks marketed as containing “liberal tears.”
If the group — which was promoted by Donald Trump Jr. and had an advisory board of high profile supporters of the former president — was a product of Mr. Trump’s inflammatory political style, then some of that aggrieved energy appears to have also made it into the federal jury room.
On Thursday morning, the 11 jurors sent their note, which quoted the man as making remarks including, “Tim Shea is a good man. He doesn’t beat his wife,” and “You just can’t vote to lynch someone.”
It went on to say that the 12th juror had displayed animosity toward the government, claiming that Mr. Shea was tried in the Southern District of New York because people there vote a certain way but that it should have instead been tried in a Southern state. That juror had also injected into deliberations topics outside the scope of the trial, including talk of “political parties,” according to the note.
Citing “a violation of oath,” the note asked Judge Torres to replace the juror with an alternate.
Judge Torres questioned that juror in her robing room, away from fellow panelists and the public. According to a transcript, she asked three questions: whether he had “biases or personal views that prevent you from being a fair and impartial juror,” whether the juror could “determine the facts subject to my explanation of the law, even if you disagree with me or the law” and whether he could consult with other members. The juror replied, “No, I don’t” to the first question and “yes” to the second two.
Soon after, the judge instructed the jurors to keep deliberating.
Jurors wrote to the judge on Tuesday saying they had gone through evidence in “granular” detail, but found themselves “even further entrenched in our opposing views” and could not agree on a verdict on any count.
The mistrial was a setback for prosecutors in the case of the only We Build the Wall defendant to go to trial. Mr. Bannon was spared a trial after he received a pardon from Mr. Trump. Mr. Kolfage pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud conspiracy and tax-related charges. A fourth defendant, Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.
Mr. Trump’s call for a border wall was deeply divisive from the moment he said in announcing his presidential campaign that he planned to build one, citing the drug traffickers and “rapists” he claimed Mexico was sending into the U.S.
We Build the Wall’s fund-raising efforts were spurred by social media posts boasting of ties to Mr. Trump. The group’s advisory board included loyal Trump allies like Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, and Erik Prince, the founder of the private military company Blackwater, now known as Academi. Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said Mr. Kolfage was “showing really what capitalism is all about.”
During Mr. Shea’s trial, prosecutors introduced as evidence copies of text messages between defendants and financial records that they said showed the movement of money.
“Lets create a gofundme to pay for the trump wall,” Mr. Kolfage wrote in late 2018 to Mr. Shea and his wife, Amanda Shea. “And if trump doesn’t take the money then we donate it to our organization.”
By early 2019, Mr. Bannon was involved. We Build the Wall’s website said the money it collected would be “used in the execution of our mission and purpose” and that Mr. Kolfage would “not take a penny.”
A text message cited by prosecutors showed Mr. Shea marveling as donations poured in.
“I mean, people are crazy,” he wrote to Mr. Kolfage. “Who would throw money at something like this? At Christmas time!”
Minutes later, Mr. Kolfage wrote to Mr. Shea: “We gotta start making more money.”
A week and a half after that exchange, Mr. Badolato wrote in a message to Mr. Bannon that the claim Mr. Kolfage “will not be paid a dime” would be “the most talked about media narrative ever.”
“But,” he added, “we gotta find an end around to get him stuff.”
Mr. Bannon later wrote to Mr. Badolato: “COAR can pay him,” an apparent reference to a nonprofit group he started called Citizens of the American Republic, referred to on its website as COAR.
Financial records cited by prosecutors showed that $380,000 was sent from the wall group to Citizens of the American Republic, which in turn sent money to Mr. Kolfage and to Mr. Bannon.
Prosecutors also introduced evidence that $300,000 from the wall fund went to Ranch Property Marketing & Management, a company that belonged to Mr. Shea. Prosecutors said Ranch Property then sent money to the Sheas, to Mr. Kolfage and to a bank account linked to a far-right website, Freedom Daily, that Mr. Kolfage and his wife had access to.
In all, Mr. Kolfage and Mr. Shea each reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scheme, prosecutors said. During his summation, a prosecutor, Nicolas Roos, told jurors: “The defendant schemed with his partner, his partner in crime, to lie to thousands of donors.”
Shea’s lawyer, John C. Meringolo, told jurors that the defendant had earned money doing legitimate work for We Build the Wall, adding: “Money’s going back and forth, and they cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt what it’s for.”
At one point, prosecutors said, We Build the Wall sent $38,500 to a bank account for an energy drink company that Mr. Shea had formed that arranged for the manufacture of nearly 50,000 cans of a drink that depicted Mr. Trump as a superhero.
“The can is Trump beating the impeachment,” Mr. Shea wrote in a text message to Mr. Kolfage. “Our next can will be Trump crushing covid.”
