Democrats said they want to pursue contempt of Congress charges against former White House adviser Steve Bannon after he declined to answer some questions posed by the House Intelligence Committee Thursday, citing presidential privileges.
Mr. Bannon testified behind closed doors as the committee continued its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential collusion between Moscow figures and the Trump campaign.
During two hours of testimony, Mr. Bannon answered 25 questions pre-approved by the White House. The questions covered post-election activity and communications.
“He would not go beyond those questions in any of his answers and that’s frustrating to those of us on the committee, so we have further steps to take, and we’ll be taking those,” said Rep. Mike Conaway, Texas Republican, a committee member.
He said it was too early to talk contempt — but that’s the path Democrats want to pursue, according to Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
He said Mr. Bannon refused to respond to questions about people who played no role in the administration and even questions about after he officially had left the White House last August.
“We cannot permit a situation where the White House is allowed to script self-serving, misleading questions and provide it to a witness and effectively coach his testimony in a very narrow and misleading way,” Mr. Schiff said.
It’s unclear, though, whether holding Mr. Bannon in contempt would yield any further answers because ultimately the Justice Department, which is headed by Mr. Bannon’s ally Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is the ultimate decision maker.
In 2014, former Internal Revenue Service employee Lois Lerner was charged in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the agency allegedly targeting conservative groups. But the Justice Department refused to seek an indictment, saying Ms. Lerner didn’t waive her Fifth Amendment right.
Congress’s contempt charge against former Attorney General Eric Holder for not handing over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious was also dismissed.
Although Mr. Bannon wasn’t saying much to the committee Thursday, several news outlets have reported the former executive chairman of Breitbart News met multiple times over the course of this week with special counsel Robert Mueller for roughly 20 hours of questioning.
Mr. Conaway, though, said lawyers are currently reviewing whether Mr. Bannon’s use of executive and presidential communication privileges before the committee was appropriate, and wouldn’t commit to bringing a vote to hold Mr. Bannon in contempt just yet.
But Mr. Schiff, though, said he thinks they’ll end up agreeing on action.
“Hats off to Steve Bannon — he’s done the impossible, he’s brought our committee together,” the California Democrat said. “There seems to be broad agreement among majority and minority members that his testimony and the breathtakingly broad asserting of privileges is insupportable.”
Mr. Schiff is also the key figure in an ongoing dispute over a memo he wrote describing how the FBI obtained a secret surveillance warrant against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign figure.
The congressman wrote his memo to counter a GOP memo that argues the FBI relied on a politically tainted, Democratic-funded anti-Trump dossier to sustain the warrant. The GOP memo was released but President Trump sent the Schiff memo back, saying it needed to be scrubbed of secret sources and methods.
Mr. Schiff said he’s willing to make some changes, but wouldn’t give a timeline for when those might happen. Congress is slated to be on vacation next week.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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