Wait, did Steve Bannon just flip again in the Trump-Russia scandal?
A couple months back, a confusing series of events ultimately resolved itself in a manner which made fairly clear that Steve Bannon had sold out Donald Trump to Robert Mueller in the Trump-Russia scandal. Now Bannon is reportedly pitching Trump a plan to sabotage the Mueller investigation. So what’s going on here? Did Bannon just switch sides again? There may be a logical explanation here, involving recent revelations with Bannon’s former company Cambridge Analytica.
For those who missed the earlier developments regarding Steve Bannon initially flipping: he had a falling out with Donald Trump over the Fire & Fury book. Mueller then subpoenaed Bannon as a result of his remarks in the book about Donald Trump Jr committing “treason.” The Trump-controlled House Intel Committee then promptly hauled in Bannon for questioning, ostensibly to find out what Bannon was going to tell Mueller. and Bannon refused to answer the most important questions. Days later, Bannon gave twenty hours of testimony to Mueller.
Whether it was a formal plea deal or simply an informal agreement to cooperate, it was clear that Bannon had sold Trump out. An interview with prosecutors doesn’t last twenty hours unless it’s of the cooperative variety; if Bannon were refusing to answer Mueller’s questions, he’d have ended the interview and subpoenaed or indicted Bannon instead. So that should have been the end of it, right? Except now the Washington Post is reporting that Bannon is suddenly pitching a plan to Trump that would involve firing Rod Rosenstein and neutering Robert Mueller’s efforts. How can this be the case?
Last month Facebook revealed that Cambridge Analytica, which was being run by Steve Bannon until he took over the Donald Trump campaign, stole user data from fifty million users. Various media reports then exposed that Cambridge Analytica was playing dirty in all kinds of other ways. If Bannon misled Mueller about these details during the interview, and Mueller figured out Bannon was lying when the Cambridge Analytica reports surfaced, Mueller could have nullified his deal with Bannon and decided to prosecute him. This would explain why Bannon is now desperate to stop Mueller.
