Ex-Trump aide Bannon refuses to comply with House subpoena

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump´s former chief strategist Steve Bannon declined on Tuesday to comply with a subpoena ordering him to answer questions from a US House intelligence panel about his time at the White House as part of its investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the US election.

After Bannon initially refused to answer questions about the matter, Devin Nunes, the committee´s Republican party chairman, authorized a subpoena during the meeting to press Bannon to respond.

Even then, Bannon refused to answer questions after his lawyer had conferred with the White House and was told again to refuse to answer questions about the transition period immediately after Trump was elected, or Bannon´s time in the administration, according to Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee.

Separately, the New York Times reported that Bannon had been subpoenaed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify before a grand jury in a probe of alleged ties between Russia and Trump´s 2016 presidential campaign, on Tuesday.

Bannon, a champion of Trump´s “America First” agenda, was among the Republican´s closest aides during the 2016 election campaign, the presidential transition and his first months in office. But the pair had a bitter public falling out over comments Bannon made to author Michael Wolff for his recent book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

“In the book, Bannon is quoted as describing a June 2016 meeting between Trump associates, including the president´s son Donald Trump Jr. , his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a Russian lawyer, as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic. “Russia has denied meddling in the election and Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow. Bannon was fired by the White House in August, though he continued to speak with Trump and tried to promote the president´s agenda. Bannon spent hours on Tuesday meeting behind closed doors with members of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. Bannon refused to speak not only about his time at the White House, but also any conversations he had with President Trump after he had left the administration “that might be for the purpose of the President seeking his advice on anything,” Schiff said. “We expect to have Mr. Bannon back in, we hope very soon, with a different position by the White House,” Schiff said.