Rep. Jim Himes James (Jim) Andres HimesMany Democrats want John Bolton's testimony, but Pelosi stays mum SEC's Clayton demurs on firing of Manhattan US attorney he would replace Democrats face tough questions with Bolton MORE (D-Conn.) said Tuesday night former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon used a “remarkably broad definition of executive privilege" to avoid answering House Intelligence Committee questions about his time in the Trump administration.

“So while we were able to ask and answer a lot of different kinds of questions, there were an awful lot of questions we weren’t able to answer based on this very novel theory of executive privilege,” Himes said on CNN.

Bannon’s attorney conferred with the White House during his client’s testimony on Tuesday, and the White House indicated that any communications while Bannon was in the Trump administration or part of the Trump transition were off limits, Himes said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Himes said he was not familiar with an individual using executive privilege as it relates to conversations with the president-elect, or conversations that don’t involve the president.

The White House order not to speak essentially amounted to a gag order, Himes argued.

“This raises some very serious issues about whether we’ll get straight answers from anybody who is or was associated with the administration or is or was associated with the transition,” Himes said.

Himes confirmed that Bannon was subpoenaed during his more than 10 hour hearing to compel him to answer questions. However, Himes said, Bannon still asserted executive privilege.

“Steve Bannon Stephen (Steve) Kevin BannonJuan Williams: Swamp creature at the White House Engineers say privately funded border wall is poorly constructed and set to fail: report Bannon and Maxwell cases display DOJ press strategy chutzpah MORE, if he continues to say 'I won’t answer those questions,' puts himself at risk of being charged with contempt of Congress,” Himes said.

The New York Times reported earlier Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE subpoenaed Bannon as part of his ongoing criminal investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Himes noted that there were multiple copies of the book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” in the room during Bannon’s testimony.

Bannon was quoted extensively in the book criticizing Trump and calling Donald Trump Jr. Don John Trump'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic requests pardon from Trump: 'Be my hero please' Zaid Jilani discusses Trump's move to cancel racial sensitivity training at federal agencies Trump International Hotel in Vancouver closes permanently MORE’s 2016 meeting with Russian officials “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”

The comments led to a falling out with Trump, who tore into Bannon as someone who inflated his role in the campaign and “lost his mind” when he left the White House last August.