(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite). Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, takes a stairwell at the Capitol as he arrives for questioning by the House Intelligence Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into meddling in the...

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite). Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, arrives for questioning by the House Intelligence Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into meddling in the U.S. elections by Russia, at the Capit...

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite). Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, arrives for questioning by the House Intelligence Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into meddling in the U.S. elections by Russia, at the Capit...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Steve Bannon, the combative former chief strategist for President Donald Trump, was interrogated for 20 hours over two days this week as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, according to a person familiar with the process.

The person, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, said Bannon answered every question that was put to him by Mueller's team. That's in contrast to a Thursday interview with the House intelligence committee, where Bannon declined to answer some of lawmakers' questions, despite a subpoena.

While the exact questions for Bannon are unknown, Mueller is investigating whether there was any coordination between Trump's campaign and Russians who meddled in the 2016 election, and also whether there have been any efforts to obstruct the ongoing FBI probe into those contacts. The House panel is investigating the meddling and whether Trump's campaign was involved.

Because Bannon was one of Trump's top advisers, both Mueller and the lawmakers were expected to question him about key events during his time in the White House, including Trump's firings of former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey.

After Bannon's roughly three-hour interview on Capitol Hill, Republicans on the House intelligence panel were weighing whether to hold him in contempt. Like his first visit to the House intelligence committee in January, Bannon declined to answer questions in the closed-door session.

According to lawmakers of both parties, Bannon would only answer 25 questions that had been pre-approved by the White House when asked about any events in the time period after President Donald Trump's election. His answer to each question was "no" and he told the committee he was not authorized to elaborate.

Bannon was already under subpoena as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been critical of the White House's sweeping interpretation of executive privilege and its contention that pretty much everything is off limits until the president says it's not.

The escalating fight between Congress and the White House over the privilege issue has centered around Bannon, an outsized figure in President Donald Trump's campaign and White House and an inspiration to some conservatives as he has publicly battled the Republican establishment. He was fired from the White House last summer, and more recently had a falling out with Trump after the January publication of a book in which he sharply criticized Trump family members.

Despite his fractured relationship with Trump, Bannon has followed White House direction as the House lawmakers have sought to talk to him. At issue is whether Bannon can talk about the presidential transition, his time at the White House and communications with Trump and others since he left last summer.

Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, the Republican leading the panel's Russia probe, said Bannon would only answer the pre-approved questions about any time period past the day Trump was elected in November 2016. He said committee Republicans would discuss whether to hold Bannon in contempt with House lawyers and with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is likely to have the final say.

"That's an ongoing conversation we'll have among an awful lot of lawyers," Conaway said after Bannon's interview.

At least one Republican on the intelligence panel said before the interview that a contempt vote would be necessary if Bannon were uncooperative. Florida Rep. Tom Rooney said Tuesday that if Bannon didn't cooperate with the panel and they didn't hold him in contempt, that would set a bad precedent.

"For not just our committee but every committee, that (subpoenas) don't mean anything, that it's just a hollow threat," Rooney said. "You can't do that."

Democrats are pushing for a contempt vote, with the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, California Rep. Adam Schiff, saying he believed Bannon's non-answers were all an attempt to draw out and block the Russia probe.

"That's not how privilege works, that's how stonewalling works," Schiff said. "And we cannot take that kind of stonewalling for an answer."

Negotiations between the House and White House have been ongoing since Bannon's first interview, and several interviews have been scheduled and postponed in recent weeks. Lawmakers headed into the meeting ahead of Bannon's entrance appeared unsure if he would arrive.

Bannon is one of the committee's few remaining witnesses in its Russia probe, which Republicans on the panel have said they want to wrap up early this year.

The Senate intelligence committee is running a separate investigation into the Russian meddling. The Senate panel hasn't yet spoken to Bannon, according to a source familiar with the probe. The person declined to be named because the interview schedule isn't public.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with county sheriffs in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Feb. 7, 2017.

Evan Vucci / AP file </s> Bannon interrogated for 20 hours over two days

WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Bannon, the combative former chief strategist for President Donald Trump, was interrogated for 20 hours over two days this week as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, according to a person familiar with the process.

The person, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, said Bannon answered every question that was put to him by Mueller’s team. That’s in contrast to a Thursday interview with the House intelligence committee, where Bannon declined to answer some of lawmakers’ questions, despite a subpoena.

While the exact questions for Bannon are unknown, Mueller is investigating whether there was any coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russians who meddled in the 2016 election, and also whether there have been any efforts to obstruct the ongoing FBI probe into those contacts. The House panel is investigating the meddling and whether Trump’s campaign was involved.

Because Bannon was one of Trump’s top advisers, both Mueller and the lawmakers were expected to question him about key events during his time in the White House, including Trump’s firings of former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey. </s> US President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has been questioned by investigators examining alleged Russian meddling into the 2016 US elections.

Bannon, who left his position last August, was interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller behind closed doors on Thursday for at least the second time this week, according to local media reports.

Mueller’s team is probing whether Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia in its bid to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

“Bannon was questioned for a long period of time by members of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team on at least two occasions,” Al Jazeera’s Mike Hana said.

“The questioning lasted some 20 hours, but the nature of the questions are not yet known,” he added.

Bannon also appeared for the second time before a congressional panel probing the same issue earlier on Thursday.

Like his first appearance in January, Bannon was reported to have cited “White House privilege”, while refusing to answer a large number of questions by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.

Frustrated Democrats slammed Bannon, saying that his refusal to answer questions should be considered contempt.

“There was a refusal to answer any questions that would have brought out the full facts,” said Adam Schiff, the Democratic leader of the panel said. “That is not how privledge works. That’s how stonewalling works,” he added.

Al Jazeera’s Hana said that “unlike Bannon’s appearance before the Intelligence Committee, we do understand that he did give answers to all the questions that were put to him by Mueller’s team”.

The probe began in May 2017 to investigate any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign.

In December, Michael Flynn, the former US national security adviser, became the fourth known person connected to the Trump campaign to be charged in connection to the investigation on possible Russian meddling.

He pleaded guilty to making false statements in relation to his conversatin with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office. </s> Steve Bannon, the embattled White House chief strategist, is leaving President Donald Trump’s administration, two senior White House officials told NBC News.

Bannon’s departure brings to a close his rocky tenure in the West Wing in which he clashed with many of Trump’s other top aides, including the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, stressed divisive nationalist themes as Trump's campaign chief, and is reported to have clashed with the White House National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster.

Trump did not endorse Bannon when asked about his future earlier this week and made his displeasure with the strategist known in April, hitting back at his strategist in a pair of interviews.

“You have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late," Trump told the New York Post then, downplaying Bannon's role as chief architect of his campaign victory. "I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn’t know Steve. I’m my own strategist and it wasn’t like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary."

Trump also slammed Bannon in an interview with The Wall Street Journal as “a guy who works for me.”

Following those interviews, a source close to the president described Trump’s comments as a "warning shot," highlighting that the president "doesn't say these things in haste.” 



Story written by Andrew Rafferty </s> Special Counsel Robert Mueller III on Tuesday asked United States President Donald Trump’s former aide Steve Bannon (pictured above) to testify before a grand jury in connection with allegations about Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Mueller, who is heading the investigation, subpoenaed Bannon on the same day the White House Chief strategist testified before a House Intelligence Committee, Bloomberg reported.

The Justice Department allows prosecutors to subpoena the targets of an investigation only in rare circumstances, The New York Times reported.

The former chief strategist refused to answer questions the House Intelligence Committee asked, Democratic Party member and intelligence committee member Adam Schiff told The Guardian. Schiff said the former Breitbart executive “was willing to answer our questions but under instructions from the White House not to.”

Bannon had a public falling out with Trump after he told Michael Wolff, the author of the book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, that the meeting between Donald Trump Jr, the president’s eldest son, and a Russian lawyer who claimed to have damaging information on Democratic Party’s presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”. On January 10, Bannon had resigned from the right-wing website Breitbart News. </s> Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to President Trump, has stepped down from Breitbart, the far-right website he returned to over the summer as executive chairman after being ousted from the White House.

The website announced the news Tuesday afternoon in a short article posted to the site.

“I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform,” Bannon is quoted as saying in the article.

Neither Bannon nor a spokesperson for Breitbart immediately responded to a request for comment.

Bannon drew the ire of the White House last week when The Guardian revealed that author Michael Wolff quoted him in his book “Fire and Fury” as saying a Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign was “unpatriotic” and perhaps “treasonous.”

Trump responded at the time by slamming Bannon in a fiery statement, saying Bannon had “lost his mind.” </s> Steve Bannon, US President Donald Trump's chief strategist, has become the latest high-profile figure in the administration whose role has come to an abrupt end.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckerby Sanders confirmed that Bannon would no longer be showing up to work.

"White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day," Sanders said in a statement on Friday. "We are grateful for his service and wish him the best."

The New York Times earlier reported what it termed as an apparent dismissal, citing sources.

The development comes as the White House reels from the fallout over Trump's response to a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville on August 12.

The former head of far-right outlet Breitbart News is described as being the nucleus of one of several competing power centres in what has been a chaotic White House.

He repeatedly clashed with other top White House advisers and often ran afoul of the president himself.

Bannon offered his resignation to Trump on August 7, according to one person close to the adviser, AP reported.

The resignation was to go into effect a week later, August 14, which was the one year anniversary of when he officially joined Trump's presidential campaign.

It was then held back a few days after the violence in Charlottesville.

But Bannon had been on shaky ground for weeks, and his standing appeared in jeopardy when Trump's new chief of staff, Kelly, embarked on a personnel review of West Wing staff.

Kelly had indicated to aides that significant changes could be coming, according to an official familiar with Kelly's plans but not authorised to speak publicly.

READ MORE: Stephen Bannon and the old/new anti-Semitism

The president had also repeatedly diminished Bannon's role in his campaign in recent remarks and refused to express confidence during an impromptu news conference Tuesday.

"He's a good person. He actually gets very unfair press in that regard," Trump said. "But we'll see what happens with Mr. Bannon."

The decision whether to drop Bannon was more than just a personnel matter. The media guru is viewed in some circles as Trump's connection to his base and the protector of Trump's disruptive, conservative agenda.

"It's a tough pill to swallow if Steve is gone because you have a Republican West Wing that's filled with generals and Democrats," said former campaign strategist Sam Nunberg, shortly before the news of Bannon's departure broke. "It would feel like the twilight zone." </s> WASHINGTON — Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, whose involvement in President Donald Trump’s White House and the president’s election campaign makes him knowledgeable about matters related to Russian meddling and potential obstruction of an ongoing federal inquiry, was interrogated over two days this week by investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller, according to a person familiar with the process.

The person, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, said Bannon answered every question that was put to him.

Bannon’s interview by Mueller’s team came just before he visited Capitol Hill on Thursday to answer questions as part of the House intelligence committee’s own Russia probe. Like his first visit in January, Bannon declined to answer some questions in the closed-door interview — forcing Republican lawmakers to weigh whether to hold him in contempt of Congress.

He would only answer 25 questions that had been pre-approved by the White House in reference to any events after President Trump’s election. His answer to each question was “no” and he told the committee he was not authorized to elaborate, according to lawmakers of both parties.

Bannon was already under subpoena as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been critical of the White House’s sweeping interpretation of executive privilege and its contention that pretty much everything is off limits until the president says it’s not.

The escalating fight between Congress and the White House over the privilege issue has centered around Bannon, an outsized figure in President Trump’s campaign and White House and an inspiration to some conservatives as he has publicly battled the Republican establishment. He was fired from the White House last summer, and more recently had a falling out with President Trump after the January publication of a book in which he sharply criticized President Trump family members.

Despite his fractured relationship with President Trump, Bannon has followed White House direction as the House lawmakers have sought to talk to him in its probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether President Trump’s campaign was involved. Because he was one of President Trump’s top advisers, lawmakers were expected to question him about key events during his time in the White House, including President Trump’s firings of former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey.

At issue is whether Bannon can talk about the presidential transition, his time at the White House and communications with President Trump and others since he left last summer. Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, the Republican leading the panel’s Russia probe, said Bannon would only answer the pre-approved questions about any time period past the day President Trump was elected in November 2016.

Conaway wouldn’t say whether Republicans would hold Bannon in contempt. He said he’d discuss the issue with House lawyers and with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is likely to have the final say in whether the House votes on contempt.

“That’s an ongoing conversation we’ll have among an awful lot of lawyers,” Conaway said after Bannon’s interview.

At least one Republican on the intelligence panel said before the interview that a contempt vote would be necessary if Bannon were uncooperative. Florida Rep. Tom Rooney said Tuesday that if Bannon didn’t cooperate with the panel and they didn’t hold him in contempt, that would set a bad precedent.

“For not just our committee but every committee, that (subpoenas) don’t mean anything, that it’s just a hollow threat,” Rooney said. “You can’t do that.”

Democrats are pushing for a contempt vote, with the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, California Rep. Adam Schiff, saying he believed Bannon’s non-answers were all an attempt to draw out and block the Russia probe.

“That’s not how privilege works, that’s how stonewalling works,” Schiff said. “And we cannot take that kind of stonewalling for an answer.”

This was the second time Bannon appeared before the committee. Republicans and Democrats subpoenaed him after he similarly refused to answer some questions in a January interview. Negotiations between the House and White House have been ongoing since then, and interviews have been scheduled and postponed in recent weeks. Lawmakers headed into the meeting ahead of Bannon’s entrance appeared unsure if he would arrive.

Bannon is one of the committee’s few remaining witnesses in its Russia probe, which Republicans on the panel have said they want to wrap up early this year.

The Senate intelligence committee is running a separate investigation into the Russian meddling. The Senate panel hasn’t yet spoken to Bannon, according to a source familiar with the probe. The person declined to be named because the interview schedule isn’t public.
U.S. President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon is interviewed over two days this week as part of the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.