Robert Mueller knocks on Steve Bannon’s door

| 1:14 pm EST January 16, 2018
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed Steve Bannon to testify before a grand jury in the investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, and suffice it to say that this changes everything. The news of the subpoena comes on the same day in which Bannon testified about the scandal before the House Intelligence Committee, which is running its own highly compromised Trump-Russia investigation, but this subpoena puts Bannon into much more consequential territory. It also reveals a lot about what Mueller is up to.

For instance, the key unanswered question in the New York Times reporting on the subpoena is this: grand jury against whom? All it says is “Mr. Trump’s associates” in the Russia scandal (link). But at this point in the investigation, with Michael Flynn having already cut a deal, Mueller is now targeting people on the level of Jared Kushner or Donald Trump Jr. This in turn means that Bannon is being hauled in to testify against one of Trump’s uppermost people. It also potentially tells us a lot more.

Bannon cannot be subpoenaed to testify against himself. So now that he’s being subpoenaed to testify before a Trump-Russia grand jury, it essentially means Mueller has no expectation of trying to prosecute him for anything related. Unless Mueller has been investigating Bannon all along and has somehow already cleared him, which seems unlikely, this means that Bannon has cut some kind of deal. So why make a hostile move like subpoenaing him?

The NYT is theorizing that this may be a negotiating tactic. But why negotiate with someone who’s already cut a deal? Our theory: Steve Bannon asked Mueller to subpoena him so that he has legal protection in case Donald Trump follows through on his threat to sue him. In any case, something major is afoot, and Robert Mueller has turned one of his biggest corners yet.