James Comey Claims Former Trump Advisor Steve Bannon Is 'in a World of Trouble'

Donald Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was arrested last Thursday after allegedly personally profiting from fundraising for the proposed Mexico border wall, which he initiated following his leave from the White House in 2017.

Former FBI director James Comey has described Steve Bannon as being “in a world of trouble” on Sunday after the former Trump campaign organiser and White House adviser was arrested and charged with taking donations from southern border wall fundraising.

“It’s another reminder of the kind of people this president surrounds himself with”, Comey said in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.

“At this point they could almost start their own crime family,” Comey told CBS.

Comey appeared to echo his own book - Higher Loyalty, which was released in April 2018, where he compares President Trump, who relieved him of his position in May the previous year, to mafia bosses.

“It’s a very serious case. The southern district of New York has laid it out in a very detailed indictment called a speaking indictment, and he’s in a world of trouble", Comey said.

He describes the case as "very serious" with a huge amount of money stolen from innocent victims.

“That’ll drive up potential punishments", he added.

Comey, who served as the US attorney for Southern District of New York, where Bannon was indicted, said that the former presidential advisor is in trouble because the "indictment lays it out in such detail", including excerpts from texts.

“I don’t know what the next steps are for him and his co-defendants, but that’s what I meant by ‘world of trouble'", he said.

Bannon has pleaded not guilty but is facing 20 years of incarceration if he is convicted. He was released on a $5m bond, with $1.75m in cash or real estate.

The former Trump manager has until 3 September to find collateral. Three other individuals - Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea - have also been arrested in connection with allegations that they worked to defraud the We Build the Wall campaign, which raised more than $25m, according to authorities.

The three have not yet entered pleas. In a statement on his Facebook page on Saturday, Kolfage said he had “obtained one of the best super lawyers around who isn’t afraid to fight back at the politically motivated assaults against me”.

Bannon is just the latest Trump-associated figure to find himself facing jail time. Former campaign chair Paul Manafort, former lawyer Michael Cohen, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn have all faced charges after being found guilty for various crimes.

Comey was fired by Trump as FBI director after trying unsuccessfully to secure a personal oath of loyalty to the president.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202008231080256371-james-comey-claims-former-trump-advisor-steve-bannon-is-in-a-world-of-trouble/

Richard Grenell on Trump: ‘He Doesn’t Play Identity Politics’

Richard Grenell, the former Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, told Breitbart News this weekend that President Donald Trump making him the first openly gay cabinet member in U.S. history has nothing to do with “identity politics” and simply reflected that the president picks the most effective people for federal positions.

“The one thing I love about President Trump is he doesn’t care about these issues,” Grenell said on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel. “He doesn’t play identity politics. You know, somebody recently asked me how many gays and lesbians work in the Trump administration. I had to answer, ‘I have no idea. I really don’t know.’ This person said to me, ‘well, there you go — that’s the reason — because we had 2,410 in the Obama administration, the Obama-Biden administration.’ I said, ‘I’d be pretty offended that I was on a list that says here’s our gay and lesbian list.’ Thank God we don’t keep a list. Thank God we don’t hire people because they come out of a box and say ‘here is a black, here is a Hispanic, here is a gay person.’ President Trump, I know him well, he doesn’t care about these types of issues. They’re irrelevant characterizations about someone. What is relevant is whether or not they can do the job.”

Log Cabin Republicans this past week released a video of Grenell, which the president shared on Twitter, hyping the fact that it was Trump — a Republican — who had the first-ever openly gay cabinet member in U.S. history, something former Democrat President Barack Obama never did.

President @realDonaldTrump made history for #LGBT Americans — and nobody knows that better than @RichardGrenell. #GetOUTspoken pic.twitter.com/HJhY5kSuh0

— LogCabinRepublicans (@LogCabinGOP) August 19, 2020

My great honor!!! https://t.co/kh2a5yumef

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2020

“When I’m talking to President Trump, I’m talking about NordStream 2, I’m talking about troops in Germany, I’m talking about the table of substance and substantive issues,” Grenell told Breitbart News. “What’s different about the Democrats is every four years they want to bring out a black person or a Hispanic person or a gay person or a woman and say, ‘look at this, we’ve got these extra people that we’re counting as part of us — aren’t we great?’ But then, the decisions are made by the elite men in a backroom. Donald Trump doesn’t do that. He’s got a table of advisers who are all sorts of different parts of America, and they’re there because they’re the best people he can find for these issues.”

Grenell continued, “I think we have a completely different philosophy about gay and lesbian issues, and when we articulate that to the gay community, there’s a huge response. People are super smart and substantive and are tired of being at the table down the hallway. They want to be at the main table. They don’t want to have like what the State Department was pushing for in a gay czar and they were hitting Trump saying, ‘you don’t even have a gay office or gay department at the State Department.’ I said, ‘Thank God we don’t.’ Because every single bureau at the State Department, whether it’s the Middle East bureau or Latin America bureau, should have in their mindset: ‘we’re going to treat everybody the same.’ We don’t need to make a policy and then go down the hallway to check in with the gay czar to see how or what extra thing do you need here to be happy. I don’t want to be the extra. I don’t want to be taken out of the box every four years and be paraded around and sent out on a press release that says, ‘here’s our list.’ I want to be the guy who’s making the decisions at the table and that’s what Donald Trump allows us to do.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/23/exclusive-richard-grenell-trump-doesnt-play-identity-politics/