Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon reportedly met with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators multiple times over the past week.
Two sources told NBC News that Bannon was interview by Mueller’s team for nearly 20 hours spread over multiple days.
Mueller’s team is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as potential ties between President Trump and Russia.
Bannon was subpoenaed by Mueller last month and reportedly made a deal with the special counsel to not testify before a grand jury.
{mosads}Bannon made an appearance before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday but refused to answer questions that weren’t pre-approved by the White House, lawmakers said afterward.
“The only questions he would answer were questions that had been scripted, literally scripted, for him by the White House. A set of 25 questions that had been written out for him to which the answer to each must be ‘no,'” Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, said.
Rep. Mike Conaway (Texas), the Republican leading the committee’s Russia investigation, said after the interview that the committee would examine what further steps they could take to compel Bannon to answer questions.
Bannon, who left the White House in August, was subpoenaed by the committee in January after refusing to answer questions posed during his first interview with the panel.
Mueller has now interviewed dozens of Trump associates and top current and former White House officials as part of his investigation. Four former Trump officials have been indicted, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn.