Steve Bannon, who served as an adviser to then-president Trump, surrendered to the Manhattan district attorneyโ€™s office on Thursday morning and was charged with money laundering and conspiracy related to his effort to raise private funds to build a wall on the southern border.

He plans to plead not guilty in court on Thursday, his attorney said.

Bannon was pardoned by President Donald Trump on the latterโ€™s last day in office in 2021 for federal charges pertaining to the same matter. He is alleged to have used some of the $25 million he raised for the wall to cover his personal expenses.

The former Breitbart chairman and chief executive of the 2016 Trump campaign, Bannon hosts the popular โ€œWar Roomโ€ podcast, and has called the charges against him โ€œphony.โ€

โ€œThis an irony, on the very day the mayor of this city has a delegation down on the border, they are persecuting people here, that try to stop them at the border,โ€ Bannon told reporters on Thursday. โ€œThey are coming after all of us, not only President Trump and myself. I am never going to stop fighting. In fact, I have not yet begun to fight. They will have to kill me first.โ€

Bannon left the Trump White House after less than a year, and was later given the nickname โ€œSloppy Steveโ€ by the former president, who eventually reconciled with Bannon.