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Trump Tower meeting with Russians 'treasonous', Bannon says in explosive book


Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president’s son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”, according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian.

Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: “They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, reportedly based on more than 200 interviews with the president, his inner circle and players in and around the administration, is one of the most eagerly awaited political books of the year. In it, Wolff lifts the lid on a White House lurching from crisis to crisis amid internecine warfare, with even some of Trump’s closest allies expressing contempt for him.

Bannon, who was chief executive of the Trump campaign in its final three months, then White House chief strategist for seven months before returning to the rightwing Breitbart News, is a central figure in the nasty, cutthroat drama, quoted extensively, often in salty language.

He is particularly scathing about a June 2016 meeting involving Trump’s son Donald Jr, son-in-law Jared Kushner, then campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York. A trusted intermediary had promised documents that would “incriminate” rival Hillary Clinton but instead of alerting the FBI to a potential assault on American democracy by a foreign power, Trump Jr replied in an email: “I love it.”

The meeting was revealed by the New York Times in July last year, prompting Trump Jr to say no consequential material was produced. Soon after, Wolff writes, Bannon remarked mockingly: “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 [censored], and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”

Bannon went on, Wolff writes, to say that if any such meeting had to take place, it should have been set up “in a Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, with your lawyers who meet with these people”. Any information, he said, could then be “dump[ed] … down to Breitbart or something like that, or maybe some other more legitimate publication”.

Bannon added: “You never see it, you never know it, because you don’t need to … But that’s the brain trust that they had.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed last May, following Trump’s dismissal of FBI director James Comey, to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election. This has led to the indictments of four members of Trump’s inner circle, including Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges; Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. In recent weeks Bannon’s Breitbart News and other conservative outlets have accused Mueller’s team of bias against the president.

Trump predicted in an interview with the New York Times last week that the special counsel was “going to be fair”, though he also said the investigation “makes the country look very bad”. The president and his allies deny any collusion with Russia and the Kremlin has denied interfering.

Bannon has criticised Trump’s decision to fire Comey. In Wolff’s book, obtained by the Guardian ahead of publication from a bookseller in New England, he suggests White House hopes for a quick end to the Mueller investigation are gravely misplaced.

“You realise where this is going,” he is quoted as saying. “This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to [censored] Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr and Jared Kushner … It’s as plain as a hair on your face.”

Last month it was reported that federal prosecutors had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank, the German financial institution that has lent hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kushner property empire. Bannon continues: “It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner [censored]. The Kushner [censored] is greasy. They’re going to go right through that. They’re going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me.”

Scorning apparent White House insouciance, Bannon reaches for a hurricane metaphor: “They’re sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category Five.”

He insists that he knows no Russians, will not be a witness, will not hire a lawyer and will not appear on national television answering questions.

Fire and Fury will be published next week. Wolff is a prominent media critic and columnist who has written for the Guardian and is a biographer of Rupert Murdoch. He previously conducted interviews for the Hollywood Reporter with Trump in June 2016 and Bannon a few months later.

He told the Guardian in November that to research the book, he showed up at the White House with no agenda but wanting to “find out what the insiders were really thinking and feeling”. He enjoyed extraordinary access to Trump and senior officials and advisers, he said, sometimes at critical moments of the fledgling presidency.

The rancour between Bannon and “Javanka” – Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump – is a recurring theme of the book. Kushner and Ivanka are Jewish. Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state, is quoted as saying: “It is a war between the Jews and the non-Jews.”

Trump is not spared. Wolff writes that Thomas Barrack Jr, a billionaire who is one of the president’s oldest associates, allegedly told a friend: “He’s not only crazy, he’s stupid.”

David Smith in Washington
@smithinamerica
Wed 3 Jan ‘18 08.07 EST

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/03/donald-trump-russia-steve-bannon-michael-wolff

So Bannon says that Don Jr./Kushner/Flynn's meeting with Russians was 'TREASONOUS' and there is nothing but crickets from the Trump supporting Breitbart fans on the board? lol, I guess the old Fake News thing doesn't apply here.

Is that the same guy that supports pedophiles running for senate seats and has repeated that white supremacists, the KKK and Alt Right groups are on equal ground as those protesting against them for spreading hate and violence in their streets and communities?

Yawn....let's sell some books!

I like how every article written about Bannon tries to portray some deep thinking man because he name drops authors, but inevitably at some point in the article he veers into saying something like "I wish Freddy Krueger was real so I could be friends with him".

It was really funny to watch him confuse Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in his NYT's piece. That's like getting Richard Yates confused with Salinger. I bet he thought he was really smart when he said it.

Fixed it.

personally, i was never a bannon fan. funny, he says these things AFTER he was fired. hmmm...

last i checked, his OPINION was not a fact.

No your thinking of Trump

LOL how convenient. Pretty much the same way the con's have been treating Manafort, Papadopoulos, Gates, and Flynn for months.

Typical.

Kushner and DT Jr soon to follow. "Lock em up"

Que the whataboutism's

Beyond the point of the article, I found this paragraph to be quite telling:



-from Bannon's own mouth.
Guess even Bannon knows where the 'fake news' comes from...

fake news: bannon was just a low level coffee boy

I always sort liked Bannon but he left the White House proclaiming he could do more from the outside to help Trump, America and the Republican Party.

So what exactly did he do with his great political prowess?

He went against Trump and the Republicans who backed Luther Strange only to back Judge Moore. He cost the Republicans a Senate seat from Alabama.

He's Done.

Yeah... the words and actions never seemed to sync. He also stumped that a vote for Moore was a vote for Trump .
Dude was all over the place.

When one cannot track any sort of consistency in a man's words and deeds, that man cannot be trusted.

I think you're right.
I think his 15 minutes is about to expire.

Trump is saying not only did the poor guy lose his job but he has also lost his mind.

Not to sound too cynical, but that's like Thelma throwing Louise under the bus.

It's looking like a cliff dive's in their immediate future...

I originally thought the same thing but after hearing Bannon and seeing how he looks these days, I wonder.

Dude's (Bannon) a hot mess on burnt toast.
45* has remained unchanged over the course of 40 years.

say whatever you want, you can search my post. Never read breibart, never liked bannon. But i am sure you will not.

That was always an excuse from him. I do not think he "left" the white house. I think he was shown the door, and has been sour ever since.

I was trying to be polite when I said "Left the White House".

Now it seems this entire thread is about to fall apart as author Michael Wolff is coming under fire for making it up.
Seems Tom Barrack is saying he was never interviewed by Wolff and those things attributed to him are made up.
Developing story.

Sorry, i did not catch that.

Hmm, interesting about Wolff and Barrack.

Only when he was in the Trump administration, right?

Boy if that isn't a "pot meet kettle" statement.

last I heard this article is now in question, funny that keeps happening to these things, right?

However, again, I was never a Bannon fan - and it seems like he has an axe to grind. Weird, a lot of the leaks have stopped since he was canned.

All you have to do to "put an article in question" is to say it's not true or call it fake news. I thought you got the memo on that one.

its time to stock up

Amazon

Considering the way these threads are going, I fixed it for you.

From what I've seen I wouldn't put too much stock into Wolff.

Those are pretty stylish

Nothing but the best for our group.

Ivanka Trump is 'as dumb as a brick' according to Steve Bannon, new book claims

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ivanka-trump-apos-dumb-brick-212700928.html

lol, man we're starting off the new year with a bang

Anything to sell a book, right?

Bernie Sanders should've been named President after he said he would never want to be friends with Kissinger.

It's going to be a great new season of The Trump Show

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-att...ory?id=52128555

Trump attorney sends Bannon cease and desist letter over 'disparaging' comments

Part of the article:

Otherwise known as:
"The Real Housewives of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave"

Too much estrogen.
Too many brainless divas at one address.
Too much drama.

*Once besties, Doninna and Stevie are now mortal enemies.

[45*]: "Beyotch, I cut your crazy azz loose from my set. Go sit yo' fired azz down, and stfu."
[SB]: "Count, I stepped off yo' mess. Now, I'm takin' yo' wackazz chit PUBLIK. Then we be seein' whassup. What? Go ahead- say something, ho- I wish you would...."

And all of America's bottom-feeders can't wait to see the clawfest that happens in the next episode.

2 weeks ago, I made a statement that I'll now reprise, to fit our current events:

Obama is America's first Black president.
Trump is America's first Ghetto president.

Deplorable.

This is the level to which the Executive Branch of America's Government has been reduced. Rampant hirings/firings. Internecine catfights. Bad optics on a daily basis. Unprofessional daily behavior. Info leaks. Weak daily spin by the admin's SECOND press sect'y. Incoherent central messaging. Manic, bi-polar 3AM internationally inflammatory tweets by the actual Commander-In-Chief.

None of this is normal... nor should we ever allow it to become normal.
This is abject aberrance on display. And it's unacceptable by any reasonable standard.

Why do you Dawgtalkers think that virtually NO BLACK PEOPLE voted for DTrump?

It isn't because of D v. R.
It isn't because of some inherent, generationally-indoctrinated groupthink.
It isn't because of what FOX, Breitbart, Stormfront, or any other Eurocentric op-ed rag tells you.
Trust an honest forthright Black man to drop some Real Truth upon you (I'm not your enemy... I'm a fellow Dawg first- and I care for you all).

I'll give you the quick, unvarnished "insider's" answer:

As a group, we American Blacks have always hated that 50's/60's/70's stereotyped inner city pimp/dealer/low-class hustler type, who tried to operate within our communities. The Good People of our neighborhoods looked down upon these low lifes just like 'cultured, higher-class White America' did. Because people like this are an affront to good human beings of every class, creed, strata and stripe. WE always knew how folks like this diminished the lustre of the whole of us. We routinely ran them out of town, because we went to school. Because we volunteered at community centers. Because we went to church.

And now, my country... OUR country is being led by a White (no, check that- unnaturally orange-hued), short-bus version of a 70's Blaxploitation movie stereotype- with access to the nuclear football. The only thing that's missing from the package is the 18" afro, hand-carved walking stick, the leisure suit with 6" wide lapels, and a pair of 8" stacked platform shoes with goldfish swimming in their transparent lucite heels. Dude's a thrice- hooked-up slumlord who sired 5 kids from 3 different Baby Mammas. Like I've said countless times before: "The Anti-Obama."

American Blacks with class, breeding, education, morals and standards HATE ni66az who present like Trump. They enable every other socially lazy person in America look down upon all of us without needing to be much better- or trying to see how many of us stood for so much more.

And you people put him into office. Not us.
We knew better.


History will extend for as long as Human Beings exist and record their days. This 'man' will be forever attached to this country at this moment in time. And he'll be forever attached to those Americans who placed his ghetto-level azz into the (formerly) most prestigious post on Planet Earth.


I hate this classless $#!+ so much.


America needs a long, hot bath.... after an industrial-strength flea dip and de-lousing shower.

I did not sign on for this mess.

9 years ago, I wished My Parents were still around to see POTUS 44. Now, I'm thankful they aren't around to see this.

Mom was an artist: Painter, poet, author, opera singer.
Pops was salt of the Earth, mixed with philosopher: an intellectual, a working man with calloused hands, a WWII vet (US Army), our town's Top Cop, a Criminologist/college educator (tOSU, Lima branch).

They would have been so proud to see what we did in '08. And they most likely would have been less mortified than I to see America/2016... because they were both born in America's 1920's, and saw much worse from America before I was even born. Momz would have launched into a quiet, dulcet refrain of 'We Shall Overcome,' while Pops would just say:

"2 steps forward, one step back. The next steps count more than where we just landed."

__________________

My hair is now gray.
I have more days behind me than I have before me.
When I was 18, I thought we'd be farther along than this.

At 61, I've seen enough of this country's 'progress' to not be surprised to find us exactly where we are.



.02,
Clem.

Wow, Slate Magazine's very own Ben Mathis-Lilley had this to say about this article/thread:

"But I do know Michael Wolff is notorious for making provocative claims without backing them up—and that he was once described by one of his own editors as having no skill greater than creating the “appearance” of knowing things he does not in fact know. So you might want to take Wednesday’s reports with a mogul-size grain of salt".

and? Trump is acting like this is all real:

Trump lawyer sends cease-and-desist to Michael Wolff publisher

http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/04/media/president-trump-legal-threat-michael-wolff/index.html

It comes after Trump's lawyer sent a letter to former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, who is quoted in the book saying unflattering things about Trump and his family, threatening to sue him.

_____________

lmfao, way to start off the new year.

Everyone knows that robots (Melania) can't cry.