It’s finally Steve Bannon’s time in the barrel
As Donald Trump’s Russia scandal has gradually unraveled over the course of the past year, and several Trump advisers have been arrested even as dozens of others have been implicated, one name has been conspicuously absent from the mix: Steve Bannon. His ties to Cambridge Analytica have always seemed dirty, and it’s difficult to imagine that he didn’t know about the Trump-Russia conspiracy in his role as the CEO of the campaign. Still, he seemed to have managed to keep his own fingerprints out of it. Over the past few days, however, everything has suddenly changed – to the point that Bannon feels compelled to publicly respond.
It all started when the fiancée of Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos asserted during an interview over the weekend that Steve Bannon was aware of what Papadopoulos was doing with Russia during the campaign. This prompted MSNBC Intel analyst Malcolm Nance to assert that Bannon will end up going to prison if he doesn’t cut a deal with Special Counsel Robert Muelller.
Others began asking why there has been no word of Bannon meeting with Mueller, at a time when many other senior Trump officials have done so. This in turn led to questions about whether Bannon might have perhaps secretly cut a deal with Mueller. However, Ari Melber reported on MSNBC on Monday evening that Bannon is insisting he has not spoken with Mueller. That raises another question: if Bannon is telling the truth, why is Mueller working around Bannon?
Here’s a hint: Robert Mueller has largely only interviewed the Trump advisers he considers to be witnesses and/or co-conspirators in the coverup, and not the people he considers to be the main culprits. Mueller didn’t interview Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, or Papadopoulos before arresting them. In other words, to borrow a phrase from Roger Stone (who may end up getting arrested himself), it’s Steve Bannon’s time in the barrel.
