Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice is continuing the Biden administration’s posture toward Trump world.
Timothy Shea remains the only defendant still incarcerated in the “We Build the Wall” federal case after a trial marred by allegations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.
Similar to Tina Peters, Mr. Shea has been hung out to dry by Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice, who has recently begun to draw the ire of President Trump, Jon Solomon, and Glenn Beck.
Beck, who has been exceedingly patient with Trump and his cabinet, tweeted this today:
I said I would give Pam Bondi a year to prove herself as an Attorney General who would dismantle the Deep State, let Americans see the truth, and finally bring to justice the criminal elites who have been “too big to jail.” Today, that year is up, and I haven’t seen evidence that she has done ANY of that.
While Beck detailed just a few of Trump’s and Bondi’s high-profile failures, he completely failed to mention that the FBI, which is part of the DOJ, has completely botched perhaps the highest profile investigation in decades — the Charlie Kirk assassination.
Beck also completely whiffed on Bondi’s and the DOJ’s efforts to smack down the Proud Boys’ efforts to see justice done after Biden’s DOJ maliciously prosecuted them.
Bondi sought to dismiss the Proud Boys’ lawsuit seeking restitution, despite the fact that the Biden DOJ’s lynchpin witness recanted his entire testimony as National File exclusively reported.
As National File reported:
Of the four men federally indicted, only Shea is currently serving prison time. On August 20, 2020, federal authorities indicted Timothy Shea with Steve Bannon and two others. While Bannon received a presidential pardon, Shea chose to fight the charges in court.
Unless Bondi decides to pull a one-eighty and tack hard against her Bushie handlers, it seems as though her time may be short.
And situations like Tim Shea’s are one big reason why.
TIM SHEA, WE BUILD THE WALL, AND THE DOJ: SDNY DIVISION
This reporter cut a video explainer of the Tim Shea case today. You can watch that explainer here, or over on X (formerly Twitter).
We’ve brought all the receipts. You can scroll down to see those, and read more in-depth detail about Mr. Shea’s case.
One year of Pam Bondi at DOJ, and Biden’s SDNY is still in charge.
Tim Shea was helping private citizens build a border wall.
It is time to let him go home to his family.
Free Tim Shea TODAY, @realDonaldTrump ! pic.twitter.com/18IrLXL72V
— National File (@NationalFile) January 21, 2026
The federal prosecution and continued imprisonment of Timothy Shea in the “We Build the Wall” case raises serious questions about judicial conduct, jury integrity, defense representation, and sentencing fairness following Shea’s 2023 conviction in the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
Shea was indicted in August 2020, mere months before the general election, alongside Stephen Bannon, Brian Kolfage, and Andrew Badolato in connection with the nonprofit organization We Build The Wall that raised private funds to construct sections of a border wall.
Shea was listed fourth on the indictment and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The case was presided over by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres.
In January 2021, then-President Donald Trump pardoned Bannon, effectively removing him from federal prosecution.
Shea, a Colorado resident who lives in Castle Rock with his wife of 20 years and their three children, ultimately became the only defendant from the original indictment to face trial and incarceration.
Shea’s first trial in 2022 ended in a mistrial after a week of testimony and more than a week of jury deliberations.
Immediately after the jury was dismissed, Judge Torres stated from the bench that she was available the following week to retry the case.
Defense attorneys viewed the remark as improper, noting that the decision to retry a case rests solely with prosecutors, not the court.
The comment, they argued, suggested a predisposition toward continuing the prosecution rather than maintaining judicial neutrality.
Unbelievably, Torres was returned to the bench for the retrial.
Several months later, Shea was retried and convicted. What followed intensified concerns about the integrity of the proceedings.
PROSECUTOR MENTORED CHILD OF JUROR #4
Five days after the guilty verdict, prosecutors submitted a letter to the court disclosing that one of their attorneys had a long-standing personal mentoring relationship with the daughter of a sitting juror.
According to the prosecution, the relationship had existed for approximately three years.
The disclosure further revealed that the juror’s daughter contacted the prosecutor twice during the trial—once on the opening day and again on the final day. The communications were not disclosed to the defense until after the verdict.
Despite defense requests, Judge Torres declined to order full production of the emails, allowing prosecutors to submit only a partial excerpt from one message. In that email, the daughter identified her mother as a juror, congratulated the prosecutor on the conviction, and stated that her mother had “enjoyed” serving on the jury.
Shea’s defense argued that the undisclosed relationship and communications created an unmistakable appearance of juror taint. Judge Torres denied motions for a mistrial and allowed the conviction to stand.
Tim’s son Jett published a video defending his father on X earlier this month.
Jett wants his innocent father released from prison.
And now Tim’s son Jett is speaking out.
You can read the entire letter in which the judge admitted to the jury being tainted here:
Excluded Exculpatory Evidence
The Defense also raised concerns over evidence connected to Bannon’s later prosecution by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg.
After receiving a federal pardon, Bannon was charged by Bragg in a separate state fraud case.
Shea’s attorneys subpoenaed discovery from that proceeding, arguing it was relevant to Shea’s defense and the government’s theory of culpability.
On the eve of production, Judge Torres quashed the subpoena, preventing the materials from being introduced at trial.
Subsequent disclosures revealed that Shea was not named as a co-conspirator in the Bannon prosecution—information the defense contends directly undermined the prosecution’s narrative against Shea.
The jury was never permitted to hear this evidence.
Court-Appointed Counsel Had Personal Conflict of Interest, Leading to Sentencing Disparities
After the trial, Shea’s attorneys asserted that the indictment contained errors and that Shea had been convicted of an offense not properly charged.
Judge Torres declined to vacate the conviction or grant relief.
Additional concerns arose approximately two weeks after the trial concluded, when Shea’s lead defense attorney, John Meringolo, passed away.
Judge Torres subsequently appointed a new attorney, Thomas Nooter, to represent Shea.
Court-appointed criminal defense counsel are typically assigned through a random rotation system based on attorney availability.
Questionable circumstances and associations later led Shea to question whether Torres’s assignment of Nooter to his case was truly random.
According to Shea, Nooter disclosed that he was personally acquainted with Judge Torres and her former husband.
Shea was told that Judge Torres’s ex-husband had been one of Nooter’s law school professors and that Nooter would occasionally stop by the judge’s chambers during lunch breaks to greet her.
Shea also raised concerns about Nooter’s legal background and ideological views.
Nooter’s primary practice focuses on immigration law, including representing undocumented immigrants seeking to remain in the United States.
Shea’s conviction stemmed from his involvement with a nonprofit that supported border wall construction—an issue closely tied to immigration enforcement.
According to Shea, Nooter openly expressed strong opposition to former President Donald Trump and identified himself as politically liberal.
Shea and his family argue that these views, combined with Nooter’s personal connections to the presiding judge and lack of criminal trial specialization, undermined confidence in the independence and effectiveness of Shea’s post-trial representation.
At sentencing on August 23, 2023, Judge Torres imposed a 63-month federal prison sentence – as much as four times the standard sentence in such cases.
Defense counsel described the sentence as extraordinary, noting that comparable cases in the Southern District of New York typically result in sentences ranging from approximately 19 to 22 months.
Shea is currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Complex in Florence, Colorado, where he has served approximately 27 months. He has five months left to serve in prison, and another year on home confinement.
Of the four individuals named in the original indictment, Shea—listed last and described by his attorneys as having the least involvement—is the only one currently serving a federal prison sentence.
Shea’s Family Appeals for Clemency
Last week, Shea’s 19-year-old son, Jett Shea, released a public video appealing to President Donald Trump to pardon his father.
The family argues that Judge Torres repeatedly sided with prosecutors, disregarded due process concerns, and allowed the conviction and sentence to stand despite significant procedural irregularities.
After three Christmases spent behind bars, the Shea family continues to call for clemency, maintaining that Timothy Shea’s case represents a profound miscarriage of justice.
