Steve Bannon tried to boot alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella from White House
by Jerry Dunleavy
| November 18, 2019 08:00 PM
Steve Bannon, Trump's former White House chief strategist, says he worked to remove alleged Ukraine whistleblower Eric Ciaramella from the National Security Council in 2017.
Bannon, who was fired by Trump in August 2017, said he shared Trump’s daughter Ivanka's views about the whistleblower’s identity not being particularly relevant but added that he had worked to kick Ciaramella off the NSC during Trump’s first year in office. Bannon did not name Ciaramella, a career CIA analyst, but clearly referred to him.
“I agree with Ivanka. I don’t think the individual naming of the whistleblower is important, although there was a story in the Washington Times yesterday that tied me to the efforts to get the — at least the gentleman who was named — out of the National Security Council,†Bannon said during a Vice interview with Liz Landers last week.
It is possible Bannon was referring to a Washington Examiner article from last week that cited former National Security Council officials who said many on the NSC were suspicious of Ciaramella and believed he may have been responsible for leaking the contents of Trump’s discussions with the leaders of Mexico and Australia in 2017. The sources said former national security adviser H.R. McMaster was unhappy with efforts by Bannon and others to push out Obama holdovers such as Ciaramella, who was criticized by pro-Trump writers in 2017.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/steve-bannon-tried-to-boot-alleged-whistleblower-eric-ciaramella-from-white-house
