Bannon meets with Mueller team, limits answers to House
WASHINGTON — Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, whose involvement in President Donald Trump's election campaign makes him knowledgeable about matters related to Russian meddling, was interrogated over two days this week by investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller, a source said.
The source, who is familiar with the process but declined to be named because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, said Bannon answered every question put to him.
Bannon's interview by Mueller's team came just before he visited Capitol Hill on Thursday to answer questions as part of the House intelligence committee's own Russia probe. Like his first visit in January, Bannon declined to answer some questions in the closed-door interview — forcing Republican lawmakers to weigh whether to hold him in contempt of Congress.
He would only answer 25 questions that had been approved by the White House in reference to any events after Trump's election. His answer to each question was "no" and he told the committee he was not authorized to elaborate, according to lawmakers of both parties.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been critical of the White House's sweeping interpretation of executive privilege and its contention that pretty much everything is off limits until the president says it's not.
At issue is whether Bannon can talk about the presidential transition, his time at the White House and communications with Trump and others since he left last summer. Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, the Republican leading the panel's Russia probe, said Bannon would only answer the pre-approved questions about any time period past the day Trump was elected in November 2016.