NEW YORK (AP) — Steve Bannon pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a fraud charge related to duping donors who gave money to a private effort to build a wall along the U.S. southern border — a case the conservative strategist has decried as a “political persecution.”

Steve Bannon, the podcaster and former chief strategist to Donald Trump, has pleaded guilty to a fraud charge as part of a plea deal to avoid jail time. Bannon faced New York state charges of scheming to defraud donors via the non profit We Build The Wall Inc.