‘All shots called by White House’ in Bannon hearing

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon refused to answer questions about his time at the White House or President Donald Trump’s transition team on Tuesday.

Steve Bannon’s attorney relayed questions to the White House during a House Intelligence Committee interview of the former Trump chief strategist, CBS News has confirmed.

After Bannon’s interview, Democrats on the committee accused the White House of exerting influence over Bannon to keep him from talking about his time in the West Wing, according to the New York Times. “And no effort to hide behind a later potential invocation of privilege by the executive”, Schiff said.

MARTIN: So your committee has – subpoenaed him yesterday for not answering questions. “Today, however, he refused”, Schiff said. Were there any instructions given to Mr. Bannon or others to take any steps to hinder the Russian investigation?

Bannon, Gowdy said, “can’t pick and choose” who he answers questions for.

President Donald Trump asked the White House doctor to perform a cognitive exam during his physical last week, despite the doctor’s determination that such testing wasn’t necessary.

Trump has tweeted that the Federal Bureau of Investigations is “in Tatters – worst in history” and has said a senior official committed “treason”.

“Clearly, it seemed to me …” Trump, who is known to eat junk food and to avoid exercise beyond golf, is overweight and has set a “reasonable goal” of losing 10 to 15 pounds in the coming year and developing a regular fitness routine, the doctor said.

Reports later surfaced that he planned to fully co-operate with Mr Mueller and was under no White House restrictions.

The criticisms echoed those from last summer when Attorney General Jeff Sessions baffled some lawmakers by refusing to answer questions about his conversations with the president, while also maintaining he was not citing executive privilege.

“We said ‘Hey, hey, pump the brakes, ‘” one White House official said.

Bannon walked into a closed-door meeting with House members Tuesday morning and was still being grilled Tuesday evening.

“He has incredible cardiac fitness at this point in his life and I think a large part of that is due to the fact he has had a life of abstinence from tobacco and alcohol”, Jackson said.

Schiff noted the committee has gone to court to compel the release of bank records for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that contracted former British spy Christopher Steele to compile a dossier that included potentially incriminating information about Trump.

What did you want to know from Steve Bannon? But former prosecutors say that his loyalties could be divided given his personal position as a witness to episodes under investigation by Mueller and Congress.

Mueller has informed Trump’s legal team that he would likely seek an interview with the president for his investigation, The Washington Post reported.

Earlier Tuesday, when asked whether the White House had told Bannon not to answer certain questions, press secretary Sarah Sanders responded, “No one has encouraged him to be anything but transparent”.