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WORLD: The House intelligence committee has issued a subpoena for testimony by Steve Bannon after his closed-door interview with the panel’s Russia probe.
UNITED STATES: The House intelligence committee issued a subpoena yesterday for testimony by Steve Bannon after his closeddoor interview with the panel’s Russia probe became entangled in legal disputes over whether the former chief strategist to President Donald Trump could invoke executive privilege.
The fight comes amid reports that Bannon has also been summoned by special counsel Robert Mueller to appear before a federal grand jury.
Intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes confirmed that he authorised the subpoena after other lawmakers said Bannon declined to answer some of their questions.
Bannon had agreed to appear voluntarily before the intelligence committee for questioning.
After the session began, the New York Times reported that he had been subpoenaed for grand jury testimony by Mueller, who is leading the criminal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign and whether anyone close to Trump colluded in it.
Representative Tom Rooney, one of two main Republicans on the intelligence committee questioning Bannon, said the former strategist’s efforts to invoke executive privilege in the committee created tensions.
‘‘I certainly think the committee respects executive privilege,’’ he said, but the question is whether it applies to events in the transition before a president takes office or to discussion in the White House about what happened during the campaign.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions also has invoked executive privilege when asked by congressional committees about some of his conversations with Trump. Democrats have countered that only the president can assert executive privilege and Trump hasn’t done so.
‘‘As with all congressional inquiries touching upon the White House, Congress must consult with the White House prior to obtaining confidential material,’’ White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters yesterday.
‘‘This is part of a judicially recognised process that goes back decades.
‘‘We have been fully cooperative with these ongoing investigations, and encourage the committees to work with us to find an appropriate accommodation in order to ensure Congress obtains information necessary to its legitimate interests.’’
The combative Bannon was quoted in the book Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff as calling Donald Trump Jr’s 2016 meeting with Russian nationals ‘‘treasonous’’ and ‘‘unpatriotic’’.
The younger Trump and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were among participants in the meeting where they expected to get damaging information about Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Bannon also was quoted as predicting that the special counsel investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia would ‘‘crack’’ the younger Trump ‘‘like an egg on national TV’’.
In a statement issued in Bannon’s name he didn’t deny the comments, saying only that he blamed Paul Manafort, who was then Trump’s campaign chairman, for allowing the meeting to take place.
Bannon was an integral part of the Trump campaign during the general election and went on to be a key figure in the White House until he was fired in August. After Bannon’s comments in the book were disclosed, Trump began calling him ‘‘Sloppy Steve’’ and issued a statement saying he’d ‘‘lost his mind’’ after being forced out of the White House in August.
– Bloomberg