Top Intel Dem: Bannon will need to testify again

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday that former White House strategist Stephen Bannon is “gonna have to come back and testify” again before the panel, remarks that came two days after Bannon last testified in front of the committee.

“He’s supposed to come back. Whether he will or not, I can’t say,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “At some point he’s going to have to come back, because this broad declaration that ‘I won’t answer questions,’ not just about the transition but anything that happened after the campaign, including up to the present date, is unsustainable.” 

Bannon, who was the top executive at Breitbart News until he was ousted last week following a feud with President Trump, limited the scope of his responses during 10 hours of testimony before the panel for the Russia probe on Wednesday to only his time on the Trump campaign. 

“It’s interesting what the White House tried to do yesterday through Secretary Kelly,” Schiff added, referring to White House chief of staff and former Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. “And that is say ‘well, we never asked him to invoke executive privilege,’ and technically that’s correct, but they did tell him, ‘keep your mouth closed.'”

Schiff on Wednesday called out the White House for its “gag order” on Bannon’s testimony, saying that Bannon’s counsel had instructed the former strategist to avoid answering questions about his time in the administration after conferring with the White House.

However, Bannon did not technically invoke executive privilege, as he is no longer a member of the administration. Bannon’s appearance before the panel was voluntary.