A former Tory parliamentary assistant and close associate of former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon has overcome substantial legal challenges in Italy and might now be able to finally reopen the doors of a right-wing training academy in a mountainous 13th-century monastery southeast of Rome.
Benjamin Harnwell, a former Conservative chief of staff in the EU Parliament and director of the Catholic Dignitatis Humanae Institute, who is also a contributing editor to The European Conservative, was completely exonerated of all charges of fraudulent participation in a public tender by Rome’s Central Criminal Court last week, arising from his role in winning the 19-year lease for the former Carthusian abbey in 2017.
Aiming to create a hatching ground for future economic-nationalist politicians, and financially sponsored by Bannon himself and ideologically sympathetic donors, Harnwell had been embroiled in a four-year-long legal dispute over the historic monastery. According to Bannon, they spent millions fighting the charges.
The Italian Ministry of Culture evicted Harnwell in July 2021, claiming—without any evidence—that the lease had been fraudulently obtained. Harnwell expressed his bafflement at how Italy’s socialist then-minister for culture, Dario Franceschini, was able to evict him without ever suing him first.
Harnwell had always forcefully maintained his innocence, and now an Italian judge has apparently totally vindicated the influential, if somewhat controversial, commentator who boasts over 150,000 followers on the MAGA-centric social media platform GETTR.