Sources tell Reuters Senate Intelligence Committee investigators are taking a closer look at Steve Bannon's role on the Trump campaign, but Bannon's lawyer says his client simply is serving as a witness for the committee.
The committee is looking into what Bannon might know about any contacts during the campaign between Moscow and two advisers to the campaign, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, they said.
William Burck, a lawyer for Bannon, told Reuters: “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.”
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The panel also will examine Bannon’s role with Cambridge Analytica, a former data analysis company that the Trump campaign hired to help identify and target messages to potentially sympathetic voters, the sources said.
The Senate committee is working with Bannon’s advisers to set a date for him to be interviewed by staff investigators in late November, two of the sources said.
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The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Bannon was questioned last week by Mueller’s team. The newspaper said the interview focused on Trump supporter Roger Stone. In emails to Reuters, Stone has said he did not know about or have access to WikiLeaks materials related to Democrats.
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Bannon served as a vice president of Cambridge Analytica from June 2014 to August 2016, at which point he joined Trump’s presidential campaign as a senior strategist.
Sources said the Senate Intelligence committee has sought to interview other witnesses about the role played by Cambridge Analytica and affiliated companies in the 2016 election.
Earlier this year it was reported that Cambridge Analytica had collected the personal data of millions of people’s Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political purposes.
U.S. Senate panel examines former Trump aide Bannon's campaign role: sources (Reuters)