Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist, has been given until next Tuesday to negotiate the terms of a closed-door interview with the House Intelligence Committee, narrowly avoiding being held in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to testify in the Russian election-meddling probe.
The interview with Mr. Bannon “has been postponed at the committee’s initiative until next week,” Mike Conway, Texas Republican and panel member, said in a statement. “We look forward to having him before the committee once we can assure that he will be able to thoroughly answer all our questions without concerns regarding the scope of executive privilege.”
On Tuesday, the former conservative media mogul was in jeopardy of defying a subpoena to testify, caught up in a tug-of-war between the White House and Congress over what he could talk about from his time with Mr. Trump.
The panel issued the subpoena to force Mr. Bannon to return after he refused to answer their questions about his work on the Trump 2016 campaign and at the White House during a contentious 12-hour session. Mr. Bannon’s attorney said he acted at the White House direction to protect President Trump’s right to assert executive privilege about their conversations.
On Tuesday, the committee’s lead Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, criticized Mr. Bannon’s attempt to narrow the scope of inquiry, claiming the White House would only permit him to answer 14 pre-approved “yes” or “no” questions.
The California Democrat said committee members of both parties found the prohibitions unacceptable and warned that the panel could still hold Mr. Bannon in contempt.
“The White House’s bar on Bannon’s testimony covers matters during the transition, his tenure at the White House and his communications with the president since leaving government service, even though the president has not in fact invoked executive privilege,” Mr. Schiff said in a statement. “This is unacceptable.”
Mr. Bannon had a very public fall from grace early this year after being quoted extensively in Michael Wolff’s tell-all White House book “Fire and Fury,” and has had a return interview with the House intelligence panel pushed back three times.
Mr. Bannon is reportedly cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s separate investigation of the scandal and will be interviewed by the special counsel’s team next week, CNBC reported Tuesday.
• Dan Boylan can be reached at dboylan@washingtontimes.com.
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