No Liberal Tears: We Build the Wall’s Colorado Conspirator Sentencing Postponed

Timothy Shea was scheduled to be in a Manhattan court today to be sentenced in connection with “We Build the Wall,” a fundraiser designed to subsidize constructing a wall along the southern border of the United States — but much of the $25 million donated by hundreds of thousands of people across the country actually went into the pockets of Shea and others involved. One was Steve Bannon, the advisor to President Donald Trump whose federal pardon issued by Trump before he left office still left him open to state charges; two others, Andrew Badolato and triple-amputee vet Brian Kolfage, the poster boy for the project, pleaded guilty in April.

Shea, a 52-year-old Castle Rock businessman, runs a drink company called Winning Energy. Cans of the beverages feature a cartoon superhero image of Donald Trump, and the company’s website claims that the contents are made from “liberal tears, creating the perfect energy drinks for winners.”

But who’s crying now?

Florida-based Kolfage started a GoFundMe campaign in December 2018 during a government shutdown sparked by Congress’s refusal to approve funds that Trump had requested to build a new border wall; donations were initially directed to a post office box in Castle Rock. At the time, Amanda Shea, a friend of Kolfage’s, told 9News that she and her husband, Tim, helped create the GoFundMe with Kolfage and volunteered to handle collections because it was easier for them to get to the post office.

But the Colorado address and other issues raised enough questions that Kolfage subsequently registered the group as a nonprofit, “volunteer” organization, bringing Bannon and others on board and ultimately raising more than $25 million.

Kolfage and Bannon had promised that “100% of the funds raised…will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose,” but according to the indictment issued in August 2020, Bannon, through a nonprofit under his control, used more than $1 million from We Build the Wall to “secretly” pay Kolfage and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own expenses. The other partners took more.

Initially, Shea’s attorney, John Meringolo, had asked for a change of venue for his client, noting that Shea had only visited New York City as a child to see a baseball game. Shea needed to be near Winning Energy’s headquarters, his filing said: “A start-up company in its infancy will undoubtedly be disrupted if a trial were to take place in New York.” The judge disagreed, and his case stayed in New York.

Shea went on trial last spring, but that ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked and one juror accused the others of being politically biased, saying the trial should have been held in the South.

In October, a second jury took six hours to find Shea guilty of two counts of conspiracy and one of obstruction of justice.

There’s another Colorado connection to this case. Former congressman Tom Tancredo was on the We Build the Wall advisory board. Tancredo took a few organization-funded fact-finding missions to the border (Amanda Shea made the travel arrangements) and saw a one-mile portion of the wall that had actually been built by the group, but said he never received any other compensation. “The border patrol says it’s the best barrier on the border,” Tancredo said of that one mile. “I am absolutely proud of it. I’m almost hoarse from talking about it on the radio.”

Shea’s sentencing was set for January 31, 2023…a day when there are no baseball games in New York City. But Meringolo, an adjunct professor at Pace University, passed away in November, and Shea’s new attorney was unavailable on that date. As a result, the government has asked that Shea’s sentencing date be moved to March 1, when Badolato is also set to be sentenced. Kolfage’s sentencing has been moved to April.

And Bannon, who pleaded not guilty last fall, is currently set to go on trial next November on money laundering, fraud and conspiracy charges related to “We Build the Wall” campaign. Bannon has pleaded not guilty; his presidential pardon does not affect charges filed by New York State.

Update: This story has been updated to include new sentencing dates.