Steve Bannon reportedly let it slip during a House Intelligence Committee hearing that he'd had conversations with Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer and legal spokesman Mark Corallo about Donald Trump Jr.'s June 2016 meeting with Russians.
According to Axios, which cited four unnamed sources, Bannon immediately realized he'd said something he shouldn't have.
His own lawyer, Bill Burck, had told the intel panel at its start on Tuesday that Bannon wouldn't answer any questions relating to his time inside the White House or during the presidential transition, Axios reported.
Axios also reported Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., pressed Bannon on his description of the younger Trump's meeting as "treasonous" — asking him why it was any different than a Cambridge Analytica employee's emailed boasts of contacts with Wikileaks's Julian Assange to get opposition research on Hillary Clinton.
Bannon claimed it was the first time he'd seen the emails.
According to Axios, Bannon attacked congressional Republicans — specifically House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. — for choosing to investigate the Trump campaign and Russia, saying it was part of an "establishment" plan to try to "nullify" the election result.
And throughout the hearing, Bannon's repeated excuses that "I really want to answer this question," and "I really wish I could answer these questions" unnerved lawmakers, who asked him why he'd leak information to reporters and "Fire and Fury" author Michael Wolff, but not talk to Congress, Axios reported.
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