After Stephen Bannon initially refused to answer questions regarding Robert Mueller’s investigation, Devin Nunes, the committee’s Republican party chairman, authorized a subpoena during the meeting to press Bannon to respond.
Now, the former White House chief strategist Bannon reportedly plans to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller.
An NBC News source close to Bannon reported early Wednesday that Bannon intends to “answer any questions” asked by the special counsel.
On Tuesday, it was officially reported that Bannon had received a grand jury subpoena from Mueller’s office. The former Breitbart News chief is compelled by the subpoena to testify in front of a grand jury.
Attorney Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, said the most likely reason for a Mueller subpoena of Bannon was that “he thought having an attorney present and giving Bannon a more relaxed setting would not yield the same testimony as if he got him in the grand jury room with no attorney there and a more adversarial style of questioning.”
A witness is not permitted to bring an attorney into a federal grand jury proceeding but can step outside to consult with counsel.
The Hill reports that the subpoena came as a response to Bannon testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, where he said that the White House had instructed him not to talk about his work in the White House or on the president’s transition team.
Bannon was fired from the White House and Breitbart after author Michael Wolf quoted him in his book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” describing a meeting between Trump associates, including the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a Russian lawyer, as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
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