FORMER White House chief strategist Steve Bannon refused to answer a broad array of queries from the House Intelligence Committee about the time he time spent working for President Donald Trump on Tuesday, provoking a subpoena from the panel’s Republican chairman.

The development brought to the forefront questions about White House efforts to control what the former adviser tells Congress about his time in Trump’s inner circle and whether Republicans on Capitol Hill would force the issue in light of the most recent events.

The congressional subpoena came the same day The New York Times reported that Bannon - a former far-right media executive and recently scorned political adversary of the president’s - has been subpoenaed by special counsel Robert Mueller to testify before a federal grand jury.

This meant Bannon became the highest-ranking person who ever served in the White House under Trump to be called before a grand jury as part of the special counsel’s investigative proceedings.

Committee members grilled the former strategist as part of their investigation into Russian election interference, and also wanted answers from him about Trump’s thinking when he fired FBI Director James Comey.

But Bannon refused to answer questions about that crucial period, prompting the committee’s chairman, Devin Nunes of California, to issue the subpoena.

Late on Tuesday, Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said Bannon’s refusal to answer those questions came at the instruction of the White House.

“This was effectively a gag order by the White House,” Schiff said shortly after Bannon’s interview concluded. He said the committee plans to call Bannon back for a second interview.

A spokeswoman for Bannon did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

At the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said “no one” had encouraged Bannon not to be transparent during questioning but added that there is a “process of what that looks like”.

“As with all congressional inquiries touching upon the White House, Congress must consult with the White House prior to obtaining confidential material. This is part of a judicially recognised process that goes back decades,” the press secretary told reporters.

A White House official said the president did not seek to exert executive privilege over Bannon - a move that would have barred him from answering certain questions.

The official said the administration believes it does not have to invoke the privilege to keep Bannon from answering questions about his time in the White House.

The focus on Bannon follows his spectacular fall from power after being quoted in a book saying that he sees the president’s son and others as having engaged in “treasonous” behaviour for taking a meeting with Russians during the 2016 campaign.

In Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, Mr Bannon accuses Donald Trump Junior, Jared Kushner and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort of essentially betraying the nation by meeting with a group of Russian lawyers and lobbyists who they believed were ready to offer “dirt” on Democratic candidate and Trump opponent Hillary Clinton.

More recently, Bannon has said he was not referring to Trump Jr. but rather to Manafort. Wolff stands by his account.

After the book’s release, Trump quickly disavowed “Sloppy Steve Bannon” and argued there was no evidence of collusion between his presidential campaign and operatives tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Steve Bannon apologised a few days later but was soon stripped of his job leading the pro-Trump news site Breitbart News.