At least one member of President Donald Trump’s inner circle believes Donald Trump Jr. was wrong to set up the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with a Kremlin-linked lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Steve Bannon told author Michael Wolff that the meeting was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic,” according to The Guardian. Wolff spoke to Bannon for a book out next week titled “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which The Guardian obtained early.
“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 told Wolff in reference to the Trump Tower meeting, per The Guardian.
Bannon did not officially join the Trump campaign until about two months after that meeting.
He told Wolff that if the Trump campaign wanted to set up such a meeting, it should take place “in a Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, with your lawyers who meet with these people.”
Bannon also predicted that special counsel Robert Mueller would focus on money laundering and would snag Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
“They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,” he told Wolff, according to The Guardian.
“This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to fucking Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr and Jared Kushner,” he added, per The Guardian. “It’s as plain as a hair on your face.”
