Bannon Reportedly Told House Intel Cmte White House Ordered Him to Keep Quiet in Hearing
Sources: Steve Bannon told House Intelligence Committee that the WH told him not to answer questions about his time working alongside President Trump pic.twitter.com/1c2ZGxBtXY
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 17, 2018
Multiple reports indicate that when Steve Bannon testified before the House Intelligence Committee yesterday, he refused to answer their questions because the White House told him not to say anything about his time working for President Trump.
The former White House strategist and ex-chief of Breitbart faced a 11 hour marathon interview when he appeared on Capitol Hill to face questions pertaining to the Russian election interference in 2016. However, discussions took a left turn at one point when Bannon cited executive privilege and avoided answering multiple committee questions about his work with Trump’s team.
“Two sources familiar with Tuesday’s hearing on Capitol Hill tell NBC News Bannon told the House Intelligence Committee the White House told him not to answer questions about his time working alongside the president.”
“The scope of this assertion of privilege––if that’s what it is––is breathtaking,” ranking Democrat Adam Schiff told reporters. “It goes well beyond anything we have seen in this investigation… This was effectively a gag order by the White House.”
In response to this development, the committee issued a subpoena in the middle of the interview so Bannon would be compelled to directly respond to questions from lawmakers. This comes comes after the news broke on Tuesday that Robert Mueller has also subpoenaed Bannon, meaning he’ll have to speak before the special counsel. NBC reports that Bannon intends to cooperate with Mueller, and will most likely be more forthcoming in this interview.
Watch above, via NBC.
[Image via screengrab]
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