Steve Bannon sought alliance with FBI in 2017 White House meeting
Source: The Guardian
Steve Bannon sought alliance with FBI in 2017 White House meeting
Bannon, then Trump’s closest adviser, told FBI officials to put their past differences with the White House ‘behind them’
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Jon Swaine in New York
Tue 14 May 2019 07.00 BST Last modified on Tue 14 May 2019 13.48 BST
Steve Bannon urged two senior FBI officials to put their differences with the White House “behind them” at a meeting in 2017, on the day after Donald Trump asked James Comey, the then head of the FBI, to pledge his loyalty to the president.
The exchange, which occurred on 28 January 2017 and has never been publicly disclosed, offers new insights into the ways in which senior White House officials, including Bannon, Trump’s closest adviser at the time, sought to ensure the FBI saw itself as an ally of the White House.
It also raises questions about why the incident was not included in the report by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian influence during the 2016 election, which contained detailed allegations of the ways in which Trump sought to obstruct the FBI’s investigation into the president and his campaign.
Bannon made the remarks to Andrew McCabe, who was then serving as deputy director of the FBI, and Bill Priestap, who was serving as the FBI’s assistant director of counter-intelligence. They were written up in a memo by McCabe and later raised when Bannon was questioned by US special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/14/steve-bannon-white-house-fbi-trump-meeting
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