How Trump-Russia ends very badly for Steve Bannon
Recent court filings reveal that Special Counsel Robert Mueller cut a plea deal with former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates to testify about Trump-Russia election collusion, and not, as had long been widely assumed, about Paul Manafort’s financial crimes. That means Mueller doesn’t need to flip Manafort. It also raises the question of how many plea deals there are left to go around. This revelations comes at the worst possible time for Steve Bannon.
We still expect that Mueller will offer lenient deals to any Trump advisers who merely got caught up in Trump’s attempts at obstructing the investigation. But when it comes to people who played a role in the original Trump-Russia conspiracy to alter the outcome of the election, lenient deals are already hard to come by. Even Michael Flynn and Rick Gates, the two conspirators who cut the early deals, when the most favorable deals are available, are both set to serve at least a few years in prison.
So what about Steve Bannon? It’s still difficult to pin down what role he did or didn’t play in the Trump-Russia scandal. But the news has been bad for him of late, as Facebook has accused his former company Cambridge Analytica of having stolen user data from fifty million Facebook users, which was then presumably used to plot the Trump campaign’s strategy. The Cambridge Analytica whistleblower claims Bannon knew all along that the company was violating the law. If this holds true, then Bannon would be looking at cutting a deal at a time when favorable plea deals for Trump-Russia conspirators look like they’re increasingly hard to come by.
Steve Bannon also has a self destructive streak. In a White House where all you have to do is kiss Donald Trump’s backside to keep your job, Bannon managed to get himself fired. He also ran his mouth so carelessly for book publisher Michael Wolff, it ended up costing Bannon his role at Breitbart, his radio show, and his billionaire backer. Does Bannon even have the sense to cut a deal? Then again, considering how he dodged the Trump-controlled House Intel Committee ahead of his testimony with Robert Mueller, maybe Bannon has already cut a deal. If he hasn’t, it may be too late.
