FBI interviews recently released from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation shed light on President Trump’s chaotic campaign and the early days of his presidency as his administration struggled to cope with Russia-related controversies.
A 26-page 2018 FBI interview with Steve Bannon, Trump’s campaign chairman-turned-White House strategist, described an incoming administration unprepared to take the reins.
“In the immediate aftermath of the 2016 presidential election and Donald Trump’s unexpected win, things were disorganized,” Bannon’s FBI notes state. “There was no real transition team in place. People in the campaign thought it was not necessary to have a strong transition team going into the election, in part because they were so far down in the polls. Trump was also superstitious about things like that.”
Bill Hagerty, the transition director, reportedly scheduled a Bahamas vacation for just after the election because he didn’t think they would win.
After the surprise victory, Bannon said incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn went to see then-national security adviser Susan Rice and her deputy Ben Rhodes “to talk about how to do things.” Bannon said they “made it up as they went along” and “didn’t recall discussions about the one-president-at-a-time policy.”
“It was evident to Bannon there would be issues with Flynn,” the FBI notes stated.
Bannon told investigators he wasn’t clued in on all of Flynn’s discussions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak as the Obama administration sought to impose sanctions on Russia following the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election. Flynn was fired by Trump in February 2017 and pleaded guilty to misleading investigators in December 2017, though he now says he didn’t lie.
“Bannon thought discussions of the Russia investigation immediately after the election were the result of Democrats being in shock over losing,” the investigative notes said.
But Bannon said the stories about Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador, “if true, … meant Flynn had unauthorized conversations about sanctions, and it played into the narrative that the campaign had some sort of backdoor deal with the Russians.” Bannon “speculated Flynn had been freelancing” and that “Flynn’s standing with Trump by the end of December was not good.”
Bannon also mentioned Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani wanting to become secretary of state and described his efforts to convince the former New York City mayor to become attorney general instead over concerns Giuliani’s foreign business contacts would tank the nomination.
“Bannon was not happy when the media reported that Kushner attempted to establish a back channel for communications with Russia during the transition,” the FBI notes said. “Neither Kushner nor Flynn mentioned the meeting.”
Bannon said he and Kushner were “not exactly speaking at the time.”
Kushner’s five-page November 2017 interview was almost entirely redacted, with snippets stating that “a few weeks after the election … Kushner, Flynn, and Kislyak met together at Trump Tower … Kushner [redacted] vaguely remembers Flynn handling Russia on the issue.”
The interviews with Bannon and Kushner were released amid 300 pages of witness interviews on Monday following Freedom of Information Act lawsuits by BuzzFeed and CNN for access to the Mueller documents. The documents include interviews with many sources: FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI general counsel Dana Boente, Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump press secretary Sean Spicer, Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus, Trump adviser Stephen Miller, and Comey’s former chief of staff, James Rybicki.
Priebus told investigators Trump viewed Obama’s Russia sanctions “as an attempt at embarrassing him.” He said Trump “viewed the firing of Flynn as a loss because it would happen so soon into his term” but “wouldn’t even look at Flynn during intelligence briefings.” When Trump fired Flynn, “The president kind of hugged Flynn, they shook hands, and the president said, ‘We’ll give you a good recommendation. You’re a good guy. We’ll take care of you.’”
Spicer’s interview was almost entirely redacted, but his impression “was Trump thought the Russia story was developed to undermine the legitimacy of his election” and claimed, “Trump said he never asked Comey for loyalty but added, even if he had asked for it, ‘Who cares?’”
Miller told investigators that Trump’s comment asking Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s emails was a joke, denied the campaign had foreknowledge of WikiLeaks releases in 2016, and described the roles that he, along with Kushner, Trump communications director Hope Hicks, and Trump social media director Dan Scavino played in drafting Trump’s tweets.
“Who’s gonna send their kids to defend Ukraine?” Miller quoted Trump as saying during the time of the GOP’s platform controversy during the Republican National Convention.
“Later in the campaign, when they were spending 99.9% of their efforts dealing with the Access Hollywood reports, they joked amongst themselves regarding how unusual it would be for the campaign to collude with Russia,” Miller told investigators.
