Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has struck a deal to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller and his team investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.
Mr Bannon, who was recently disavowed by President Donald Trump,
will discuss his time with the Trump campaign and White House directly
with the investigators, and will bypass questioning in front of a grand
jury.
Mr
Mueller's team had secured a subpoena to compel Mr Bannon to testify,
which could have forced him to speak with the grand jury.
FBI
agents reportedly showed up at Mr Bannon's home in Washington, DC last
week with the subpoena, only to find out that the former White House
employee had secured the legal representation of William Burck hours
earlier, according to reports.
Those
agents then sent the subpoena they had intended on delivering to Mr
Bannon to Mr Burck, who is also representing two other witnesses in Mr
Mueller's probe.
News
of Mr Bannon's coming cooperation with the Mueller probe comes just
after the bombshell, tell-all book about Mr Trump's first year in
office, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. That
book portrayed a chaotic go of it, and painted a picture of Mr Trump
erratic, impulsive, and disinterested chief executive. In one segment of
the book, Mr Bannon is quoted calling Donald Trump Jr -- who took a
meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower during the campaign after
being promised dirt on Hillary Clinton -- "treasonous" for the contact.
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