House panel wants Bannon to explain Comey firing

A House panel questioned Steve Bannon on Tuesday, aiming to find out President Donald Trump’s thinking when he fired FBI Director James Comey, according to a person familiar with what the panel was planning to ask the former White House chief strategist.

The committee also planned to press Bannon on other “executive actions” taken by Trump that have drawn interest from congressional investigators prying into ties between Trump’s campaign and Russian operatives, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record about the closed-door session and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Those key elements bear directly on the criminal investigation now underway by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is charged with determining if collusion existed between the Trump campaign and Russia and whether the president obstructed justice by firing Comey or by taking other actions to thwart investigators.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, it appeared possible that Bannon could be interviewed all day by the House Intelligence panel, on par with other top-tier witnesses who have been called before congressional investigators for marathon sessions. Bannon started with the committee at 8 a.m., but questioning did not start until later in the morning.

His interview follows his spectacular fall from power after being quoted in a book that he sees the president’s son and others as engaging in “treasonous” behavior for taking a meeting with Russians during the 2016 campaign.

Doug Mills / The New York Times Dr. Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, discusses President Donald Trump’s health at the White House in Washington on Tuesday. Jackson said Trump is in excellent health overall, and received a perfect score on a neurological impairment screening.