Steve Bannon subpoenaed to testify at grand jury over Russia links

Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon reportedly subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury over Russia links.

Steve Bannon arrives at a House Intelligence Committee closed door meeting. Picture: Getty Images.

Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has reportedly been subpoenaed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify before a grand jury in a probe into alleged ties between Russia and Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

It was the first time Mr Mueller is known to have used a subpoena against a member of Mr Trump’s inner circle, The New York Times reports. It cited a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Mr Bannon was among Mr Trump’s closest aides during the 2016 election campaign, the presidential transition and during his first months in office. But the pair had a bitter public falling out over comments Mr Bannon made to author Michael Wolff for his recent book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

In the book, Mr Bannon is quoted as describing a June 2016 meeting between the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a Kremlin linked Russian lawyer, as “treasonous” and predicting that the inquiry would ultimately focus on money laundering.

The meeting came after Donald Trump Jr. was told in an email that the Russian government had compromising information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, to which he replied: “I love it.”

“The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor — with no lawyers,” Mr Bannon told Mr Wolff.

In Fire and Fury, Mr. Bannon also said he believed there was “zero” chance that the younger Mr. Trump did not take the Russians to meet his father, who has said he knew nothing about the meeting.

Mr Bannon was fired by the White House in August and returned to the right-wing news website Breitbart News. He continued to speak with Mr Trump and tried to promote the president’s agenda. However after Mr Wolff’s book was published, Mr Trump accused Mr Bannon of having “lost his mind” and he was ousted as chairman of Breitbart News.

Mr Mueller’s subpoena, which was issued last week, could be a pressure tactic to induce Bannon to co-operate fully with his investigation, the NY Times reported.

“By forcing someone to testify through a subpoena, you are providing the witness with cover because they can say, ‘I had no choice — I had to go in and testify about everything I knew,’” Solomon Wisenberg, a prosecutor for the independent counsel that investigated Bill Clinton, told the newspaper,

Separately, on Tuesday Mr Bannon met with the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. He is the latest high-profile figure to testify before the panel as part of its investigation into Russia interference in the US election.

Russia has denied meddling in the election and Mr Trump has denied there was any collusion between his campaign and Moscow.

Later in the week, the panel will hear from former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, who served as Trump’s spokeswoman during his presidential campaign.

Reuters