January has certainly been a wild ride for former chief strategist Steve Bannon. It began with the release of Michael Wolff’s controversial book “Fire and Fury,” which details the behavior of President Donald Trump and his staff during the 2016 presidential campaign and the transition to the White House.

The book has been highly criticized by President Trump especially for painting him in an unflattering light, characterizing him as erratic and unintelligent. The book quotes Bannon in several places, claiming that Trump has paid off over 100 women during the campaign and that Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic,” which has led to Trump publicly denouncing Bannon.

Trump claimed that Bannon “lost his mind” after his removal from the White House. In legal retaliation, Trump’s attorney has sent a cease and desist letter to Steve Bannon, and released a statement regarding it.

The Breakup

The statement reads: "This law firm represents President Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. On behalf of our clients, legal notice was issued today to Stephen K. Bannon, that his actions of communicating with author Michael Wolff regarding an upcoming book give rise to numerous legal claims including defamation by libel and slander, and breach of his written confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement with our clients. Legal action is imminent."

Despite being ousted from his position in the White House by Gen.

John Kelley last August, Bannon has remained an adviser to the president speaking with him over the phone regularly despite protests from many other top advisers. With all of the political fallout facing Bannon, many of his allies have called it quits. The billionaire Mercer family, who has provided significant financial backing to Bannon for many years, publicly disowned him earlier in the month with the statement, “My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements.”

The Fallout

As if losing his status with Trump and his plutocrat supporters wasn’t bad enough, Bannon’s beloved Breitbart News has even abandoned him.

He had worked as the executive chair of the site for four years, leaving only to join the Trump Campaign in August of 2016. Bannon returned a year later to great support, yet Breitbart announced Tuesday, January 9th that Bannon would be leaving the company. In a short statement, Bannon claimed that he was “proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time.” The move will surely hurt Breitbart, who has been fervently following Bannon’s public remarks and selling his merchandise, but it seems the alt-right news source is intent on moving on from Bannon and onto more acceptable forms of xenophobia, like Milo Yiannopoulis, who's also on thin ice with them.

The Aftermath

To truly close out Bannon’s fall from influence, he is set to testify before the House Intelligence Committee about his role in the Trump campaign on Tuesday, January 16th.

Despite insisting for months that he would not need a lawyer, Bannon has finally turned to legal aid in preparation for the testimony. He has chosen prominent attorney William Burck to represent him. Burck is also representing several other important members of the campaign and White House staff during the probe, including Reince Priebus and Donald Mcgahn. A person familiar with the agreement between Bannon and Burck says that representation is limited to the Congressional testimony and does not include speaking with special counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation.

It seems to many Democrats, however, that the Congressional Committee is rushing to a conclusion, and many do not expect Bannon’s testimony to change their decision.

Rep. Adam Schiff has accused the GOP of blocking other key witnesses from testifying. Rep. Devin Nunes stepped aside from the investigation earlier last year, but with the support of Speaker Paul Ryan has continued to prevent several witnesses and subpoenas for information from Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. It seems that our best hope for unraveling this investigation now lies in Robert Mueller, and potentially a disgraced Steve Bannon.
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