Don’t expect a rerun Tuesday of Steve Bannon’s contentious appearance last month before the House intelligence committee.
The former adviser to President Trump reportedly won’t even be there.
In a report Monday evening, CNN said Mr. Bannon, whose relationship with the president has been broken over the disastrous Roy Moore defeat in Alabama, will not appear before the panel.
Such an absence would risk a contempt of Congress citation for refusing to comply with a subpoena.
Citing “a source close to the process,” CNN reported that Mr. Bannon won’t show because “the White House and committee haven’t reached an agreement over the scope of the questioning.”
That issue has been at the center of previous head-butting between Mr. Bannon and the intelligence panel, with the current and former head of Breitbart News saying he would only testify about his actions when he was with the Trump campaign.
But Mr. Bannon’s attorney said then that his client would honor a request from Mr. Trump to protect the president’s executive privilege and refuse to answer questions about the transition period or his short time in the White House.
This refusal angered both parties and prompted Tuesday’s subpoena, CNN reported.
Rep. Mike Conaway, Texas Republican and an intelligence panel member, told reporters Monday night that Mr. Bannon must comply with the subpoena, regardless of whether the panel and the White House had made a deal about the testimony’s scope.
He also said, according to CNN, that he was unaware of any such deal having been made.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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