According to recent reports, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has been summoned to testify before a grand jury.
Steve Bannon was reportedly subpoenaed by former FBI director Robert Mueller, who is leading an investigation into alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 election campaign.
On January 16, he appeared separately before a Congressional panel.
Congress is holding its own inquiry into the allegations.
The New York Times, quoting an unnamed person with direct knowledge of the matter, reports that Steve Bannon was subpoenaed last week.
However, the summons could be a negotiating tactic by Robert Mueller to persuade Steve Bannon to agree to be questioned by investigators in the less formal setting of the special counsel’s offices in Washington, the newspaper’s source added.
The House Intelligence Committee is also investigating the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Its proceedings on January 16 were not open to the public.
This is one of four investigations being conducted by Congress into the alleged collusion, with others launched by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee.
Steve Bannon has left Breitbart News organization, where he built his reputation.
The move comes amid a furore over remarks Donald Trump’s former chief strategist reportedly made about the president’s son, Donald Jr.
Steve Bannon described a meeting Donald Trump Jr. held in New York with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential election campaign as “treasonous”.
He was one of Donald Trump’s most trusted – and controversial – aides.
However, Steve Bannon left his post last summer after reports of a power struggle among President Trump’s White House staff.
Steve Bannon’s subsequent attempt to take on the Republican establishment suffered a severe blow when Roy Moore, the Senate candidate he championed in a special election in Alabama, lost to a Democrat – the first time that party has won in the state in decades.
President Trump has recently taken to referring to Steve Bannon as “Sloppy Steve”, a derogatory reference to his former aide’s famously disheveled appearance.
Rebekah Mercer, a wealthy benefactor of Steve Bannon, said at the weekend she had ended her support for his political efforts.
On January 7, Steve Bannon insisted that his “treason” comments – quoted in an inside account of the Trump White House, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury – were not directed at Donald Trump’s son but at another former aide, Paul Manafort, who was also present at the meeting in Trump Tower.
The Senate, House of Representatives and a special counsel are all investigating alleged Russian interference in the presidential election, allegations denied by both Russia and President Trump.
Steve Bannon had served as executive chairman of Breitbart since 2012.
Breitbart issued a statement saying it and Steve Bannon would “work together on a smooth and orderly transition”.
The organization quoted Steve Bannon as saying: “I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform.”
Larry Solov, the Breitbart chief executive, was quoted as saying: “Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish.”
Steve Bannon has tried to reverse remarks in which he called President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Jr., “treasonous”.
His accusation appears in Michael Wolff’s new book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
Donald Trump’s former chief strategist was referring to a meeting in June 2016 between Donald Trump Jr. and a group of Russians.
However, on January 7, Steve Bannon said the barb was directed at former aide Paul Manafort, who was also present.
The Senate, House of Representatives and a special counsel are all investigating alleged Russian interference in the presidential election, allegations denied by both Russia and President Trump.
In a statement first reported by news site Axios, Steve Bannon called Donald Jr. “both a patriot and a good man”.
“My comments were aimed at Paul Manafort, a seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate,” he said. “He should have known they are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends. To reiterate, those comments were not aimed at Don Jr.”
The original remark, published in Michael Wolff’s book and not disputed by Steve Bannon, appeared to take aim at all three Trump campaign officials in the room, including Donald Jr.
It read: “The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor – with no lawyers. They didn’t have any lawyers.
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”
Steve Bannon’s attempt to clarify follows repeated denunciations by President Trump, who dubbed him “Sloppy Steve” and said his former aide “cried when he got fired”.
It also follows the loss of the main financial backer of his conservative Breitbart website, heiress Rebekah Mercer, who said in a rare public statement that she had cut off Steve Bannon from funding following his remarks to Michael Wolff.
Steve Bannon went on in his statement to say he regretted waiting five days to say something, and called Michael Wolff’s reporting “inaccurate”.
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House rocketed to the top of the Amazon bestseller list upon publication last week and became the talk of Washington DC and beyond.
Based on first-hand reporting at the White House and, according to Michael Wolff, more than 200 interviews with top administration figures and others, it portrays the president as impatient, unable to focus and with no interest in reading or attempting to understand policy.
White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has attacked white nationalists as “clowns” as the fallout from violent protests in Charlottesville continues.
Steve Bannon once headed the right-wing Breitbart News, seen as both a major channel for nationalism and key in helping Donald Trump win election.
However, the former film executive told The American Prospect: “Ethno-nationalism – it’s losers.”
Questions surround Steve Bannon’s future, with President Trump refusing to say whether he still had confidence in him.
President Trump has reportedly been urged to fire Steve Bannon, who in his role has enjoyed direct access to the president and whose influence has been seen in decisions like the US withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.
At a news conference this week, President Trump would only say “we’ll see” when it came to Steve Bannon’s future.
Donald Trump is under fire for his response to August 12 clashes between far-right and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which he blamed “both sides” for the violence.
The rally, attended by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, was in protest at the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, a general who fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the US Civil War.
A memorial was held on August 16 for Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old woman killed when a suspected far-right sympathizer drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters.
Meanwhile Apple CEO Tim Cook has become the latest business leader to criticize President Trump, saying he did not agree there was a “moral equivalence” between white supremacists and “those who oppose them”.
In his interview with The American Prospect, Steve Bannon was asked if there was a connection between the economic nationalism that he supports and the white nationalism seen in Charlottesville.
“Ethno-nationalism – it’s losers,” he said.
“It’s a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, uh, help crush it more.”
“These guys are a collection of clowns,” he added.
Steve Bannon has distanced himself from “ethno-nationalism” before, telling the New York Times his interest in nationalism stems from wanting to curb the negative effects of globalization.
The NSC advises the president on national security and foreign affairs.
Steve Bannon’s appointment in January raised fears that the circle of top advisers was being politicized.
Analysts say the latest moves show President Trump’s new national security adviser, Lt. Gen. HR McMaster, reshaping the NSC team appointed by his predecessor.
The previous national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, was fired after just three weeks and three days in the job after it emerged he had misled the vice-president over his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the US.
However, a White House aide said the reshuffle was not a demotion for Steve Bannon, who used to head up Breitbart News.
The aide said Steve Bannon was only given a seat on the NSC to keep an eye on National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in February.
The NSC is the main group advising the president on national security and foreign affairs.
The White House did not announce April 5presidential executive order detailing the shake-up – it only came to light in a regulatory filing.
Image source Wikimedia
The reshuffle also restores the director of national intelligence, CIA director and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to full participation on the NSC’s inner circle, its principals committee.
In its January 27 memorandum elevating Steve Bannon, the White House had also downgraded the military chiefs of staff, provoking widespread criticism in Washington’s foreign policy and security establishment.
The director of national intelligence and the joint chiefs were advised they only needed to attend NSC meetings when discussions pertained to their areas.
The White House bridled in January at criticism of the Bannon move, pointing out that President Barack Obama‘s former adviser, David Axelrod, regularly attended NSC meetings.
However, David Axelrod was never appointed to the principals committee, as Steve Bannon was.
Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned as senior editor at Breitbart News and apologized after a coming under fire over comments that appeared to approve paedophilia.
The conservative writer said in a statement his “poor choice of words” was detracting from his colleagues’ work, so he was quitting immediately.
Milo Yiannopoulos, 32, had already lost a book deal and a speaking engagement over the row.
Videos surfaced of him discussing the merits of gay relationships between adults and boys.
However, Milo Yiannopoulos, the tech editor, denied he had endorsed child abuse and said one video had been edited to give a misleading impression.
At a press conference on February 21, he explained that he had been referring to his own experiences as a victim of child abuse.
He said that two men, including a priest, had touched him inappropriately when he was in his young teens.
Image source Flickr
“I haven’t ever apologized before, and I don’t intend on ever doing it again,” he read to a room full of reporters.
“To be a victim of child abuse and at the same time be accused of being an apologist for child abuse is absurd.”
However, Milo Yiannopoulos’ mea culpa came too late to save him from being axed in the line-up at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland.
The CPAC said his response had been “insufficient”.
Publisher Simon & Schuster also cancelled Milo Yiannopoulos’ forthcoming book, Dangerous.
During his press conference the British writer claimed to have received interest from other publishers, and vowed to set aside 10% of the book’s profits to donate to charities that support victims of child abuse.
He appears to thrive on controversy and is accused by some of being a peddler of hate speech.
Milo Yiannopoulos was banned from Twitter after provoking online harassment of a black actress, Leslie Jones, from the Ghostbusters remake.
He has also been widely criticized for comments he has made about feminists, transgender people, Muslims and Black Lives Matter protesters.
The University of Berkeley in California earlier this month canceled a talk by Milo Yiannopoulos, following violent student protests.
President Donald Trump has decided to reshuffle the National Security Council (NSC), downgrading the military chiefs of staff and giving a regular seat to his chief strategist Stephen Bannon.
Steve Bannon, formerly the head of the populist right-wing Breitbart News website, will join high-level discussions about national security.
The order was signed on January 28.
The director of national intelligence and the joint chiefs will attend when discussions pertain to their areas.
Under previous administrations, the director and joint chiefs attended all meetings of the NSC’s inner circle, the principals’ committee.
Image source Wikimedia
The NSC is the main group advising the president on national security and foreign affairs.
The group is led by retired lieutenant-general Mike Flynn, who was one of Donald Trump’s closest advisers and most ardent supporters during the campaign.
Donald Trump’s executive order said: “The security threats facing the United States in the 21st century transcend international boundaries.
“Accordingly, the United States Government’s decision-making structures and processes to address these challenges must remain equally adaptive and transformative.”
Last week, Steve Bannon described the US mainstream media as “the opposition party”, saying it should “keep its mouth shut”.
Breitbart News, the site Steve Bannon once managed, serves up an anti-establishment agenda that critics accuse of xenophobia and misogyny. Under Steve Bannon, Breitbart News became one of the most-read conservative news and opinion sites in the US.
PresidentTrump also ordered a restructuring of the Homeland Security Council.
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