Postal Service agents reportedly arrested Stephen Bannon

Former advisor to the US president and US publicist Steve Bannon poses during a photo session in Paris on May 27, 2019.
(Image credit: JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)

Two of the month's biggest news stories just combined in the weirdest way possible.

Stephen Bannon, President Trump's former chief strategist, was arrested on Thursday on fraud charges after he allegedly put money from an online fundraiser to build a wall along the southern border to personal use. More details are starting to emerge about Bannon's arrest, including the fact that, according to CBS News, he was "taken into custody by agents from the U.S. Postal Service."

This bizarre development comes amid an ongoing battle over controversial changes to the Postal Service, and the United States Postal Inspection Service, the USPS' law enforcement arm, assisted in the investigation that led to Bannon's indictment, according to CNBC.

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Making things even wilder, as CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports, Bannon was arrested by these Postal Service agents "on a boat Thursday morning off the Eastern coast of Connecticut," which he had been on "for the last several weeks" while telling people he was "at sea." The Washington Post adds that it was "someone else's 150-foot yacht" that Bannon was on when he was arrested.

But wait, there's more: according to The New York Times' Evan Hill, the indictment mentions that one of the defendants used allegedly defrauded money to buy a boat — apparently the same boat defendant Brian Kolfage used in a Fourth of July Trump boat parade.

"So the border wall, the U.S. Postal Service and Boaters for Trump (!) all seem to converge in this Bannon story," The Washington Post's Felicia Sonmez writes. And you thought Avengers: Infinity War was the most ambitious crossover event in history? Think again.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.