Newly-released documents from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and a new report from Bloomberg News suggest that former Trump campaign Chief Executive Steve Bannon provided Mueller with false information during the federal investigation.
Bloomberg News reporter Jennifer Jacobs wrote on Monday that Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, were angered over recent revelations that surfaced when the documents from Mueller’s investigation surfaced over the weekend. Jacobs wrote:
Bannon wrote in the July 2017 email that Kushner “was on ‘vacation’ off the coast of Croatia with a Russian billionaire when I took over the campaign.”
Bannon wrote the email while he was still employed in the Trump administration as the president’s chief strategist, leading Kushner and Ivanka to allegedly tell associates that they consider the email to be proof that Bannon sought to undermine the administration while he worked in the White House.
Buried in the 274 pages that was released from the investigation was a summary of an investigative interview that Mueller’s team had with Bannon on February 14, 2018, that stated:
Bannon knew Kushner was on vacation off the coast of Croatia with a Russian billionaire when Bannon took over the campaign. Kusher was with Wendy Deng, the Russia billionaire, and the Russian’s girlfriend. Bannon said his friends in the intelligence community said the girlfriend was “questionable.”
Multiple sources told Bloomberg that the allegation that Kushner and Ivanka were vacationing with a Russian billionaire was completely untrue.
“This is truly bizarre because the information Bannon apparently gave to the FBI and Special Council is provably false—it’s been verified that Jared and Ivanka never met any Russians while on vacation in August of 2016,” a former senior White House official told The Daily Wire. “I’m not surprised though because Steve was engaged in a pointless war with Jared and Ivanka the entire time he was in the White House.”
“Pushing a provably false accusation to the media—and even more insanely to the Special Counsel—shows the depths to which he was willing to go to advance himself at the expense of the President and his family,” the official added. “It’s sad to watch for those of us who know him but Steve has turned out to be an overrated opportunist, revisionist and well-documented liar who continues to take credit for successes in which he played no role.”
A former White House lawyer told The Daily Wire: “If nothing else, Steve is dependable: dependably dishonest and disloyal. He was a liability from the day he joined the campaign to the day he left the White House. We all wish he would go away and stay away.”
The news could complicate Bannon’s current role as an informal outside defender of the president against the Democrats’ impeachment efforts.
“But feeling among some WH officials is Bannon’s effort is unnecessary and unwelcome, sources tell me,” Jacobs wrote on Twitter. “WH aides had suspected Bannon was leaking info that would deepen Russia collusion narrative. … No Russians were on boat trip, person familiar w trip tells me.”
WH aides had suspected Bannon was leaking info that would deepen Russia collusion narrative.
In newly disclosed email, from 2017, Bannon wrote that Kushner “was on ‘vacation’…with a Russian billionaire“ in 2016.
No Russians were on boat trip, person familiar w trip tells me.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 4, 2019
Bannon lawyer, William Burck, responded to Bloomberg News in a statement, writing: “Steve Bannon was one of several witnesses for investigators who, based on their careful review of witness testimony and other evidence, did not find a conspiracy or coordination between the President or his campaign and the Russians. To assert anything else is false.”
Bannon recently launched “WAR ROOM,” a podcast with influential Trump supporters Raheem Kassam and former Trump campaign chief spokesman Jason Miller.
WAR ROOM: Impeachment featuring Stephen K. Bannon (@CitizensAR), @RaheemKassam and yours truly is now available on iTunes!
Your daily download to learn how we fight back!
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— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) October 31, 2019