President Trump was personally involved in the decision to exert executive privilege over former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday, according to a new report.
Trump acted to limit what Bannon could discuss based on legal advice from deputy White House counsel Uttam Dhillon, two people with firsthand knowledge of events leading up to the directive told Foreign Policy.
Dhillon, however, concluded the same executive privilege claim could not be applied to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Bannon refused to answer questions from congressional investigators during a closed-door session Tuesday and then ignored an on-the-spot subpoena issued by the committee.
But White House chief of staff John Kelly said on Thursday that administration officials did not prevent the former Trump campaign chairman from responding to the panel’s inquiries.
During Thursday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to detail instructions given to Bannon’s legal team regarding what material could be protected by executive privilege, but said “the same process and past practice” is being followed by all former administration employees dealing with Congress.
Bannon was reportedly subpoenaed by Mueller last week and has agreed to be interviewed by his team rather than appearing before a grand jury.
