White House Chief of Staff John Kelly arrives for a meeting with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 17, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly told Fox News on Wednesday the White House did not tell former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon to invoke executive privilege in closed testimony before Congress on its probe of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

Bannon, who testified on Tuesday before the House Intelligence Committee, refused to answer questions about his time in Trump’s administration or during the transition after his lawyer had conferred with the White House, according to Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee.