WASHINGTON -- A House panel questioned former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Tuesday, days after his being quoted in a book that he sees the president's son and others as engaging in "treasonous" behavior for taking a meeting with Russians during the 2016 campaign.
But Bannon refused to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee about his time working for President Donald Trump, provoking a subpoena from the panel's Republican chairman.
The committee chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes of California, issued the subpoena after Bannon refused to answer questions about his time on the presidential transition or his work in the Trump White House, Nunes' spokesman said. It was unclear whether Bannon was more forthcoming after the issuance of the subpoena.
A spokesman for Bannon did not respond to multiple requests for comment Tuesday afternoon. A White House official said the White House did not seek to exert executive privilege over Bannon -- a move that would have barred him from answering certain questions -- because they didn't have to. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
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Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, meanwhile accused the White House of placing a "gag order" on Bannon, barring him from answering many questions as part of the panel's investigation into Russian election interference.
At the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said "no one" had encouraged Bannon not to be transparent during questioning.
Before the interview, which lasted much of the day, a person familiar with what the panel was planning to ask Bannon said the Intelligence Committee was trying to find out Trump's thinking when he fired FBI Director James Comey.
Additionally, the committee planned to press Bannon on other "executive actions" taken by Trump that have drawn interest from congressional investigators looking into ties between Trump's campaign and Russian operatives.
The person wasn't authorized to speak on the record about the private session and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Those key elements bear directly on the criminal investigation now underway by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is in charge of determining whether collusion occurred between the Trump campaign and Russia and whether the president obstructed justice by firing Comey or by taking other actions to thwart investigators.
Bannon did not address reporters before entering the proceeding Tuesday, and a spokesman for Mueller and a senior White House lawyer did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Also Tuesday, The New York Times reported -- citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter -- that Bannon last week was subpoenaed by Mueller to testify before a grand jury as part of his Russia investigation.
The move marked the first time Mueller is known to have used a grand jury subpoena to seek information from a member of Trump's inner circle. The special counsel's office has used subpoenas before to seek information on Trump's associates and their possible ties to Russia or other foreign governments.
The subpoena suggests Bannon is not personally the focus of the investigation. Justice Department rules allow prosecutors to subpoena the targets of investigations only in rare circumstances.
Mueller issued the subpoena after Bannon was quoted in Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House criticizing Trump, saying the president's son Donald Trump Jr.; the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner; and Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman at the time, were "treasonous" and "unpatriotic" for attending the meeting with Russians at Trump Tower.
The Russians had promised the Trump officials damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton.
More recently, Bannon has said he was not referring to Trump Jr. but rather to Manafort, who has been indicted in Mueller's probe.
Bannon, in the book, also predicted that the special counsel investigation would ultimately center on money laundering.
Michael Wolff, the journalist who wrote Fire and Fury, has said he stands by his account.
After excerpts from the book were published this month, Trump derided Bannon publicly and threatened to sue him for defamation. Bannon was soon ousted as the executive chairman of the far-right website Breitbart News. Bannon was forced out of his White House job last summer before the book came out.
Some legal experts said the subpoena could be a sign that the investigation was intensifying, while others said it may simply have been a negotiating tactic to persuade Bannon to cooperate with the investigation. The experts also said it could be a signal to Bannon, who has tried to publicly patch up his falling-out with the president, that despite Trump's legal threats, Bannon must be completely forthcoming with investigators.
FBI AGENTS RATTLED
Separately, several current and former U.S. law enforcement officials told Bloomberg News that the Justice Department's decision to give congressional Republicans access to documents about FBI investigations risks exposing sensitive sources or material and poses a critical early test for bureau Director Christopher Wray.
The officials, all from the career ranks of the FBI and the Justice Department, as opposed to political appointees, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters and express their concerns.
As the Russia investigation continues to hang over the White House, Republicans in Congress have sought to turn the tables on the FBI by calling into question the fairness and methods of senior agents. They've been requesting documents and holding public hearings that focus on alleged wrongdoing or political bias by agents.
Agency leaders, for a time, resisted turning the documents over. The standoff led to a meeting between House Speaker Paul Ryan, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Wray to discuss potential charges of contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents.
In the end, the Justice Department agreed to give lawmakers material they requested, though it was unclear whether Republicans would get everything they want.
Some of the U.S. law enforcement officials said they view the department as capitulating to a small group of Republicans who are intent on helping Trump undermine the integrity of the FBI and, by extension, Mueller's Russia investigation.
It's the latest setback for a law enforcement agency that has long held itself out as doggedly independent and above partisan politics, only to be besieged over the past two years by questions about its handling of politically sensitive investigations into Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Trump.
One agent said he's now concerned that forms identifying FBI informants would be handed over to Congress. If that happened, he said, it would cause him to think carefully about whether to withhold sensitive information from future reports.
Another agent said recent statements about the bureau by Trump and congressional Republicans have made it more difficult for him to get informants to open up.
Trump has tweeted that the Federal Bureau of Investigations is "in Tatters -- worst in history" and has said a senior official committed "treason."
Information for this article was contributed by Tom LoBianco and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press; by Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times; and by Chris Strohm, Greg Farrell and Billy House of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 01/17/2018