Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon reportedly called the 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a group of Russians “treasonous.”
According to a new book seen by the Guardian, Bannon said the meeting that occurred during the 2016 presidential race was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
“They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,” Bannon reportedly told author Michael Wolff, referring to the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
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After news of the meeting surfaced last year, Bannon reportedly said: “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. They didn’t have any lawyers.”
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately,” Bannon said, according to the book.
The quotes were chronicled in the book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which is scheduled to be released next week.
News surfaced last year of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting that included a Russian attorney, Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Last month, CNN reported that the British publicist Rob Goldstone, who arranged the June 2016 meeting, sent multiple follow-up emails later that summer to President Trump’s social media director and a Russian who was at the meeting.
Congressional investigators discovered the emails from Goldstone during a hearing behind closed doors with Trump Jr. None of the emails were sent directly to the president’s eldest son, CNN reported last month.
The emails raised new questions for congressional investigators looking into the details of what was discussed at the Trump Tower meeting.
Goldstone helped set up the meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer who had promised damaging material on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.