BANNON SET TO TESTIFY FOR HOUSE INTEL PANEL
Committee probing Russia interference
WASHINGTON — With his wounds still fresh after a vicious falling-out with President Trump, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is expected to testify behind closed doors to the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, according to a source with knowledge of the schedule.
The House committee is one of at least three congressional panels investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Bannon has not previously testified before any of them, or, as far as is known, before special counsel Robert Mueller, who is conducting a separate criminal investigation.
Bannon’s testimony before the House panel has been expected since last month, when his name was added to a roster of upcoming interviews. But his appearance comes at a dramatic moment.
His ties with Trump were already strained after he was forced from his White House job last summer and frayed completely this month when a new book quoted Bannon as describing a controversial Trump campaign meeting with a Kremlin-tied lawyer in June 2016 as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., has said he arranged the meeting at Trump Tower — which also involved Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser — because he had been told the Russian lawyer would provide damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
Trump Jr. later said the lawyer gave them no useful information on Clinton and the conversation shifted to other topics.
After headlines trumpeted Bannon’s comments in “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by author Michael Wolff, Trump said Bannon had “lost his mind” when he lost his White House job.
Bannon did not dispute his comments in the book, but he apologized for them. Still he was forced out of his position running the right-wing website Breitbart News, imperiling his ability to influence conservative politics.
Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, and Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager, are also expected to testify to the House committee in the near future, according to the source.