US Senate Investigating Bannon’s Role in Trump’s 2016 Campaign – Reports

The US Senate Intelligence Committee is reportedly examining former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s activities during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The committee is looking into what Bannon might know about alleged connections between Russian government and two of the campaign’s former advisers, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, three sources familiar with the inquiry told Reuters for a report published Wednesday.

READ MORE: Mueller Interviews Bannon Over WikiLeaks DNC Dump — Reports

An attorney representing Bannon denied that his client was the subject of a probe.

“The Senate Intelligence Committee has expressed an interest in interviewing Mr. Bannon as a witness, just as they have many other people involved in the Trump Campaign. But the Committee has never suggested that he’s under investigation himself, and to claim otherwise is recklessly false,” said William Burck, Bannon’s lawyer.

Page had business contacts in Russia before working for Trump’s campaign, but no charges have yet been filed against him. Papadopoulos, on the other hand, pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators about his contacts with Russians. On September 7, he was sentenced to 14 days in prison. Both Trump and Russia have denied all allegations of collusion during the 2016 campaign.

The Senate panel is also reportedly looking into Bannon’s involvement in Cambridge Analytica, a defunct data analysis company used by the Trump campaign to help identify and target messages to potentially sympathetic voters on social media, the sources said.

Two of the sources added that the Senate committee is working with Bannon’s legal advisers to schedule an interview with him November. One of the sources familiar with the Bannon-related Senate panel investigation said special counsel Robert Mueller’s team does not consider Bannon to be a potential subject of their investigation.

Bannon reportedly met for the second time with Robert Muller’s team of investigators. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that former White House strategist was questioned about Trump supporter Roger Stone, as well as emails from the Democratic National Committee, which US prosecutors claim were acquired via hacking by Russian operatives. Mueller's office is trying to determine if WikiLeaks coordinated with Stone and the Trump campaign on the timing of the release of the emails, the report said. Stone told Reuters he had no knowledge about any material WikiLeaks acquired about the Democrats.

Bannon served as a vice president of Cambridge Analytica from June 2014 to August 2016, joining Trump’s presidential campaign as a senior strategist.