House panel subpoenas Steve Bannon

WASHINGTON — Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Tuesday refused to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee about his time working for President Donald Trump, provoking a subpoena from the panel's Republican chairman.

Bannon walked into a closed-door meeting with House members Tuesday morning and was still being questioned Tuesday evening as part of the committee's investigation into Russian election inference. Lawmakers also wanted answers from him about Trump's thinking when he fired FBI Director James Comey.

The committee chairman, Devin Nunes of California, issued the subpoena after Bannon refused to answer questions about his time on the presidential transition or his work in the Trump White House, said Nunes spokesman Jack Langer. It's unclear whether Bannon was more forthcoming after the issuance of the subpoena.

A spokeswoman for Bannon did not respond to multiple requests for comment Tuesday afternoon. A White House official said the White House did not seek to exert executive privilege over Bannon — a move that would have barred him from answering certain questions — because they didn't have to. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The committee also planned to press Bannon on other "executive actions" taken by Trump that have drawn interest from congressional investigators, said another person, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record about the closed-door session and spoke on condition of anonymity.

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