Steve Bannon
refuses lawmakers' questions, following 'White House instructions'
Democrat
says Bannon’s lawyer said former strategist, facing subpoena, would otherwise
have been willing to respond
Ben Jacobs
in Washington
@Bencjacobs
Wed 17 Jan
2018 07.12 GMT First published on Wed 17 Jan 2018 01.53 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/16/steve-bannon-trump-congress-intelligence-questioning
Steve
Bannon refused to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee during
a closed-door session, even after he was issued a subpoena to testify by the
committee on Tuesday, saying that the White House had told him not to.
Adam
Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said during a news conference
after the marathon hearing, that Bannon’s lawyer had told the committee that
the former White House aide “was willing to answer our questions but under
instructions from the White House not to”. Schiff condemned what he called “a
gag order from the White House”.
Bannon, the
former Breitbart head, testified before the committee but refused to answer any
questions about his time in the transition, in the Trump administration and
even after he left the White House.
The hearing
was left in recess and the subpoena remains in effect, which means that Bannon
could be called back to testify under oath.
Schiff
said: “This was the first time we saw a witness refuse to answer the questions
under the instructions of the White House or claim that the White House might
later invoke privilege.”
Earlier on
Tuesday, it was reported that Bannon had received a grand jury subpoena last
week from the special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian
meddling in the 2016 election and alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign
and Moscow.
The
intelligence committee’s chair, Devin Nunes, acknowledged its subpoena to
reporters earlier Tuesday. “Of course I authorized the subpoena,” said the
California Republican. “That’s how the rules work.”
The
subpoena issued by the committee on Tuesday was the result of Bannon apparently
invoking the doctrine of executive privilege, which is the implicit power of
the executive branch to withhold information about internal deliberations.
Earlier on
Tuesday, press secretary Sarah Sanders said “no one” had encouraged Bannon not
to be transparent during questioning but there’s a “process of what that looks
like”.
“As with
all congressional inquiries touching upon the White House,” she told reporters,
“Congress must consult with the White House prior to obtaining confidential
material. This is part of a judicially recognized process that goes back
decades.”
However,
the supreme court has made clear that giving the president “an absolute
privilege” against a subpoena “on no more than a generalized claim of the
public interest in confidentiality of nonmilitary and nondiplomatic discussions
would upset the constitutional balance of ‘a workable government’”.
The
Republican Mike Conaway of Texas insisted to reporters that “this witness is
not an executive” and felt confident that Bannon would eventually testify in
full. “There were questions that we asked that were not answered and we are
going to resolve the issues to get the answers.’’
Congressman
Tom Rooney of Florida, speaking to reporters earlier on Tuesday, said that he
“certainly think[s] the committee respects executive privilege. When does that
attach, is the question that dominates the day.” Did it come into effect for a
president, he asked, “during the transition or actual swearing in”?
The
subpoena is reportedly the second that Bannon has received in recent days. The
New York Times reported earlier Tuesday that Mueller issued a subpoena last
week to compel Bannon to testify before a grand jury in his investigation.
A
spokesperson for Bannon did not respond to a request for comment from the
Guardian.
Bannon has
come under scrutiny after making incendiary comments about the Russia
investigation in the bestselling book Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff. These
comments were first reported by the Guardian. He described a 2016 meeting at
Trump Tower between Trump’s son Don Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, his
campaign manager Paul Manafort and a number of Russians as “treasonous”,
“unpatriotic”, and “bad shit”.
The top
Trump aides had taken the meeting under the expectation that the Russians had
damaging information about Hillary Clinton, which they wished to share with the
campaign.
In the
Wolff book, Bannon said it was likely that the Russians had met with Trump Sr
as well. “The chance that Don Jr did not walk these jumos up to his father’s
office on the 26th floor is zero,” he said.
Bannon’s
willingness to abide by White House instructions comes after Trump denounced
him as “Sloppy Steve” for the comments he made in Wolff’s book. Trump also
issued a statement after the book’s publication bashing his former top
strategist, suggesting that Bannon had “lost his mind”, and the White House
press secretary, Sarah Sanders, even went so far as to say that Breitbart
should “consider” removing him from his position as executive chairman. Within
days, Bannon resigned from his post at the conservative website that he molded
in his own image.
The
Associated Press contributed reporting.
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