The House Intelligence Committee is ready to interrogate Steve Bannon, the onetime close ally of President Donald Trump, after his astounding fall from power due to his accusations that president’s son and others “treasonously” attended a meeting with Russians during the 2016 campaign, Associated Press informs.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one person that is familiar with the committee’s plans stated that Bannon is set to give his testimony before the panel on Tuesday.
The testimony comes just one week after a very public excommunication from Trump’s closest confines following the publication of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury.” In the book, Bannon accuses Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of “treasonous” behavior for attending a meeting with a group of Russian lawyers and lobbyists who they believed were ready to offer “dirt” on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
More recently, Bannon has said he was not referring to Trump Jr. but rather to Manafort. Wolff contends the reverse.
After the book’s release, Trump quickly disavowed “Sloppy Steve Bannon” and argued extensively that there was no evidence of collusion between his presidential campaign and agents related to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bannon gave an apology a few days later, but was stripped of his job leading the pro-Trump news site Breitbart News.
Bannon last year had largely dodged the probe of congressional investigators, who instead were focused on trying to secure interviews with top witnesses such as Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
But Bannon had a critical role in the campaign, the presidential transition and the White House — all during times now covered by the probe of the congressional investigators who are searching for possible evidence of a connection between Trump’s actions and Russia.
Bannon recently decided to reemploy the same lawyer of former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus and White House general counsel Don McGahn. Neither Bannon nor his lawyer immediately responded to a request for comment on Monday.
The House Intelligence Committee is speeding toward a conclusion of its interviews in its Russia investigation. The final result could be marred by partisan infighting, which has some members discussing the probability that Republicans on the panel will issue one set of findings and the Democrats will issue their own report.
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