Former White House adviser Steve Bannon has been quietly pitching White House aides and Trump confidants on a plan to better insulate President Donald Trump from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, the Washington Post reported Wednesday night, citing people familiar with the discussions.
Bannon’s plan would involve firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the Justice Department official who oversees the Russia probe and who signed off on an FBI raid on Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, according to the Washington Post. Bannon also believes Trump should fire Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer tasked with overseeing the response to the Russia probe, and stop cooperating with Mueller’s probe, according to the Washington Post.
Bloomberg Businessweek’s Josh Green confirmed the outline of Bannon’s advice for Trump.
Following @costareports, Bannon tells me "You have to get rid of Rosenstein, maybe Mueller + Ty Cobb….They crossed the red line by subpoenaing the Trump org records + doing the raid on Michael Cohen. They’re into dark territory now. So let’s make this political…" 1/2 https://t.co/gyKnpdP8fs
— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) April 12, 2018
Bannon, who angered Trump with his remarks in the book “Fire and Fury,” has not presented this plan directly to the President, according to the Washington Post. Instead, he has told White House aides and others who speak with Trump about his proposal. Bannon hopes that his plan would help Trump and may also be looking to restore his image with the President, as Green noted.
Bannon has proposed that Trump should assert executive privilege retroactively on interviews his aides have already given to Mueller’s team, an idea that some White House aides are wary of, according to the Washington Post. Bannon believes that Trump could argue he received poor legal advice as justification for the retroactive move, per the Post.
The FBI’s raid on Cohen earlier this week has renewed Trump’s anger toward Rosenstein and Mueller, and he has reportedly floated firing Rosenstein this week. He has also reportedly expressed less willingness to sit for an interview with Mueller’s team since the raid.
Read the Washington Post’s full report here.
Bannon to White House: “Fire the Jew!”
More sage advice from the success story known as “Steve Bannon’s Life”
I say listen to him Trump , He 's a very very smart guy with a great brain.
Please Fire Rosenstien , what could possibly go wrong?
Strange to me how wrong SNL and the rest of us were about Bannon. He comes groveling back to the WH, and is willing to sell out the country to get back into DJT’s good graces. Rather pathetic, really. And feeding the ego of the narcissist in chief is the last thing we need right now.
Our lawyer friends here will have to tell us if backsies is a recognized concept in jurisprudence. In other news, maladjusted grandiose schemer remains true to form; film at 11.
Wow. Fire Rosenstein. That idea has been around since only the middle of last year.
No wonder they call Bannon a genius.