Steve Bannon, the onetime top strategist to former U.S. President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to money laundering and conspiracy charges for allegedly deceiving donors to an effort to help Trump build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Prosecutors accused Bannon of defrauding donors who contributed more than $15 million to a private fundraising drive, known as "We Build the Wall," for the former Republican president's signature wall.

According to the indictment, Bannon promised donors that all their money would go toward the wall, but concealed his role in diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars to the drive's chief executive, who had promised to take no salary.