In December 2018, Sam Nunberg met with Steve Bannon at the Loews Regency hotel in Manhattan. Nunberg, a former Donald Trump campaign aide, expected to discuss work he was doing for a PAC that Bannon ran. But Bannon, whom Trump had fired from a White House job the year before, had other plans. Nunberg says that moments after the meeting began, Bannon pulled out what he said was a printed lawsuit and warned that the fugitive Chinese mogul Guo Wengui was poised to sue Nunberg. Bannon—who was working for Guo at the time—said he could have the lawsuit shelved.