Former advisor to US President Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, met with then Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe and former FBI Assistant Director Bill Priestap on 28 January 2017 to sort out issues that could impede the FBI from being able to work together with the Trump administration, The Guardian reported, citing anonymous sources.
During the meeting, which took place amid a scandal surrounding now-debunked allegations of collusion between Trump's team and Russia, Bannon reportedly asked McCabe and Priestap to set aside their past "differences" with the White House, without specifying what these were. According to the outlet, he also argued that the FBI and the White House were on the same team.
Although the contents of the meeting are based on anonymous sources, The Guardian received circumstantial confirmation of a meeting from Bannon's lawyer. When asked about the meeting with McCabe and Priestap, he responded that "Bannon is not discussing anything he spoke to special counsel Mueller's team about", suggesting that the episode was revealed by him when he gave his testimony to Mueller. Neither McCabe nor Priestap have commented on the report.
READ MORE: Bannon Predicts 'Most Vitriolic Year' in US Politics Since Before Civil War
A day before Bannon met with McCabe and Priestap, Trump held a meeting with FBI Director James Comey to allegedly ask him to pledge his "honest loyalty", something that Trump has denied, but which Comey reportedly gave. Trump later fired the FBI director, claiming he "wasn't doing a good job" and referring to recommendations from US Attorney Generals Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein.
Trump specifically complained about the results of the FBI investigation into his election opponent Hillary Clinton's emails affair. Despite admitting the wrongdoing on Clinton's part due to her use of a private server for work-related emails during her days as secretary of state, Comey refused to recommend prosecuting her for it.
The firing of former FBI Director Comey spurred concerns of alleged attempts to obstruct justice on Trump's part, which were later investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, along with claims that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia to win the election.
READ MORE: Ex-FBI Director Comey Claims Trump Could Be Prosecuted Over Mueller Report
The final Mueller report has shown that there was in fact no collusion between Trump's team and Russia, something that both sides have repeatedly stated throughout the investigation. Trump has repeatedly slammed the investigation as a political "hoax" and unprecedented "presidential harassment", arguing that it creates additional difficulties for his job in office.
The special counsel also failed to find evidence of obstruction of justice on Trump's part, but refused to fully exonerate him from the accusations.
