PICTURED: Founder of border wall ‘scam’ at the White House and its ‘foreman’ with Donald Trump
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Alleged We Build The Wall ‘fraudster’ Brian Kolfage beams with pride as he and his family pose for festive photos in the White House – despite President Donald Trump’s claims he ‘didn’t know’ the accused conman.
DailyMail.com can reveal how triple amputee Kolfage, 38, scored a VIP Christmas invite then bragged afterwards of briefing Trump personally about his crowd-funded border wall and even cracking jokes about Hillary Clinton.
Another picture uncovered by DailyMail.com reveals the president standing beside Mike Furey, aka ‘Foreman Mike’ – the larger-than-life ‘construction boss’ who narrates numerous videos for We Build The Wall. It is unclear if he is a real builder or simply a social media frontman.
Wearing his trademark hard hat, dark shades and reflective jacket, Foreman Mike gives a thumbs up while Trump does the same, smiling broadly for the camera.
Joining them is ‘Angel Mom’ Mary Ann Mendoza, an advisory board member for We Build The Wall who has campaigned for tougher border controls after her police officer son, Sgt Brandon Mendoza, was killed in 2014 by an illegal immigrant driver.
Brian Kolfage posted this Instagram photo on December 2 last year of him and his family standing beside a pair of twinkling Christmas trees at the White House, writing: ‘A White House Christmas! @flotus did an incredible job decorating’
Kolfage bragged in a tweet on December 26, 2019 about briefing Trump personally about the We Build The Wall fundraiser
Kolfage has been very outspoken on social media about his ties with Trump, uploading this copy of his RSVP confirmation to the White House
Another picture uncovered by DailyMail.com reveals the president standing beside Mike Furey, aka ‘Foreman Mike’ – the larger-than-life ‘construction boss’ who narrates numerous videos for We Build The Wall. They’re with ‘Angel Mom’ Mary Ann Mendoza, an advisory board member for We Build The Wall. According to a tweet the photo was taking in February
The snap was taken in February according to a Twitter post, several months after Kolfage took his glamorous wife Ashley, 34, and their two kids to the White House.
The Purple Heart recipient posted an Instagram photo on December 2 last year of the four standing beside a pair of twinkling Christmas trees, writing: ‘A White House Christmas! @flotus did an incredible job decorating.’
He also uploaded a copy of his official invitation and another photo of himself posing beside a portrait of Hillary Clinton in the Cross Hall.
‘Found my girl @hillaryclinton,’ he joked. ‘I told @realdonaldtrump Halloween was over and to take down the damn decorations!’
On December 26, Kolfage further claimed to have held personal talks with the President about his $27million fundraising drive to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
‘I talked to the president and told him @WeBuildtheWall is ready to build the government wall across the @NatButterflies property on the river bank, saving the butterfly property from being cut in half from the Army Corps wall. We will save Texas and butterflies!’ he wrote.
The tweet was an apparent reference to a butterfly sanctuary that had sued the government to stop wildlife habitat being cleared in the Rio Grande. In another further post from 2018 Kolfage showed off a Trump-Pence rally VIP pass.
Despite the numerous images and tweets Trump claimed not to know Kolfage after news broke Thursday that he had been arrested for wire fraud and money laundering, along with Steven Bannon, Timothy Shea and Andrew Badolato.
The former airman is accused of swindling $350,000 from We Build The Wall despite pledging to ‘not take a penny in salary or compensation’, while his three co-defendants are alleged to have set up shell companies to secretly pay him while taking a further slice for themselves.
In another photo from the White House, Kolfage is seen posing beside a portrait of Hillary Clinton in the Cross Hall, with the caption: ‘Found my girl @hillaryclinton. I told @realdonaldtrump Halloween was over and to take down the damn decorations!’
Kolfage even managed to score a VIP pass to one of Trump’s rallies, and posted a photo of his badge along with a picture of Trump. ‘Another @realdonaldtrump rally in the books,’ he wrote
‘Ain’t that a good looking crew! #BUILDTHEWALL,’ Kolfage captioned this photo of him, his wife Ashley, Foreman Mike and Don Jr and Andrea Gallagher, the wife of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was pardoned of war crimes by President Trump
‘I don’t like that project,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. ‘I thought it was being done for showboating reasons. It was something I very much thought was inappropriate to be doing.’
Asked directly if he knew any of those involved aside from Bannon, his former Campaign manager, Trump replied: ‘I didn’t know the other people.’
His denials mirror those offered by Donald Trump Jr, who claimed he had minimal involvement with We Build The Wall despite donating his personal money to it.
The President’s eldest son held hands with Kolfage and praised the project during a speech at the ‘Symposium at the Wall: Cartels, Trafficking and Asylum’ event in July 2019, calling it ‘private enterprise at its finest.’
‘Doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else. What you guys are doing is amazing,’ he gushed.
A spokesman for Don Jr, who receiving a customized gun from Mendoza for lending his support, insisted Thursday that he had been ‘deceived’.
‘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,’ his spokeswoman Amanda Miller said.
‘He 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.
‘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 our southern border and if he and others were deceived, the group deserves to be held accountable for their actions.’
In November this photo was posted to the We Build the Wall Inc’s Facebook page announcing that Foreman Mike would be in Florida with Don Jr, Matt Gaetz and We Build The Wall founder, Brian Kolfage
Mike Furey, aka ‘Foreman Mike’ is a larger-than-life ‘construction boss’ and often the face of We Build The Wall. It is unclear if he is a real builder or simply a social media frontman
We Build The Wall offered signed copies of Don Jr.s book for $75, however, the Republican National Committee offered copies of his book for $75 – but without his signature
Don Jr praised the wall-building effort at an event in 2018 as he’s pictured holding hands with a Purple Heart recipient and triple-amputee Kolfage
But DailyMail.com has found further evidence of links between the two, including a photo of them together in November 2019 at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, a few miles from Kolfage’s home in Miramar Beach, Florida.
We Build The Wall advertised the event beforehand as a chance to meet Foreman Mike, Don Jr. and Florida GOP congressman Matt Gaetz.
Joining Kolfage, his wife Ashley, Foreman Mike and Don Jr for the picture was Andrea Gallagher, the wife of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was pardoned of war crimes by President Trump.
A source close to Don Jr. said it was a book signing for Triggered, his recent work, and that he had simply posed with the group.
And We Build The Wall also offered signed copies of Don Jr.s book for $75.
Intriguingly, the Republican National Committee also offered copies of his book for $75 – but without his signature. A source close to Don Jr. offered no explanation for the We Build The Wall promotion.
Kolfage was a respected campaigner for injured US servicemen before his profile went national in 2018 with the launch of his GoFundMe pledge to privately erect sections of the border wall President had promised his supporters.
It was inundated with donations from Republicans and had collected more than $20million by December that year.
Steve Bannon allegedly took $1million, some of which he used to pay Kolfage, but some he allegedly kept and spent on hotels, travel and credit card debt
Kolfage was arrested for wire fraud and money laundering, along with Timothy Shea (left with wife Andrea) and Andrew Badolato (right)
Kolfage launched We Build The Wall in 2018 by setting up a GoFundMe that pledged to build barriers along the border in Texas and New Mexico. The online appeal for funds included a photo of President Trump and a ‘Trump Approved’ stamp
However GoFundMe became suspicious of where the money was going and urged Kolfage to give it to a legitimate charity or refund everyone who had donated.
That is when Bannon, Shea and Badolato got involved, according to prosecutors, using used shell companies and We Build The Wall Inc, a not-for-profit formed by Bannon, to launder money back to Kolfage while keeping some for themselves.
The fund would pay the shell companies who would in turn would deposit the money back into accounts held by Kolfage, putting the transactions down as ‘media’, ‘consulting’ or ‘social media’, it is alleged.
Despite claiming on GoFundMe that he’d ‘never take a penny’ from donations, the indictment alleges that the wounded hero drew a $20,000-a-month salary in addition to a one-off, $100,000 payment.
He stole $350,000 in total, spending it on a boat, Range Rover, golf kart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, home renovations and credit card debt, according to a Federal indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York.
Bannon allegedly took $1million, some of which he used to pay Kolfage, but some he allegedly kept and spent on hotels, travel and credit card debt.
All four deny conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, charges that each carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
EXCLUSIVE: How We Build The Wall ‘fraudster’ Brian Kolfage targets illegal immigrants online and censorship but launched extraordinary legal bid to gag his opponents
BY: BEN ASHFORD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
His glittering military career may have come to cruel end when he lost both legs and his right hand in a devastating 2004 rocket attack in Iraq.
But Brian Kolfage has been waging an online war ever since, targeting illegal immigrants, lax border controls and attempts to censor the conservative opinions he espouses daily on social media.
As well as operating his scandal-tainted We Build The Wall GoFundMe appeal, Kolfage has posted opinions and articles on a slew of Facebook pages which opponents dismiss as fake news.
Kolfage, 38, is accused of fraudulently pocketing funds that he used to fund his lavish lifestyle in Florida. He is pictured with his TikTok star wife Ashley, 33, on their boat
When Facebook pulled one such platform, Right Wing News, in 2018, Kolfage complained: ‘They shut down my page because it was conservative, powerful, and the elections are in 2 weeks.’
Just this week, when GoFundMe took down his fresh crowdfunding effort to sue Black Lives Matter for being a ‘racist terror group’, Kolfage raged on Instagram: ‘They are part of the problem with censorship.’
But while the wounded hero has styled himself as a campaigner for free speech in public, DailyMail.com can reveal how he quietly launched an extraordinary legal action to gag his online opponents.
In a 2014 lawsuit the veteran demanded damages and the removal of scores of social media smears calling him everything from a Nazi to a ‘pill-addled junky’ on Facebook and YouTube.
The seven defendants were all Facebook users from across the US, including one whom Kolfage hired a private investigator to track down and slap with a summons.
One detractor had accused him of running a ‘scam charity’ and ‘defrauding the United States government’ – allegations that aren’t dissimilar to the criminal indictment Kolfage faces for allegedly swindling money from his $27million GoFundMe campaign to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
For the most part, though, the trolling comments ranged from untrue slurs about him and his wife Ashley, to ‘childish and insulting variations on his name’ including Brian Kolfage, Brian Kolfagget and Airdouche Brian Kolfart.
‘Kolfage is not a criminal or a fraud. He is faithful to his wife. He has never threatened to kill a baby. Kolfage’s war injuries did not include the loss of his genitals’, his suit, filed in Maricopa, Arizona, makes plain.
The defendants argued that Kolfage was a public person because of his speaking events and TV appearances and was thus a valid target for criticism and satire. ‘Plaintiff Brian Kolfage has intentionally sought public attention through numerous avenues, including the internet, and thus exposed himself to fair comment regarding his activities and beliefs,’ wrote one defendant.
Kolfage said the only way he and his wife could have the offending comments scrubbed from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing was if a court ruled they were defamatory.
He wanted up to $1.5million for being falsely branded ‘criminals, liars, cheats, sexual deviants, pornographic actors, illegal drug users and racists’.
The case was moved to Arizona District Court and attracted interest given its possible implications for the use of defamation laws against online trolls.
However it was settled in October 2015, long before Kolfage achieved nationwide fame through We Build The Wall.
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