Former FBI Director James Comey will
testify publicly before the Senate intelligence committee, committee leaders
announced Friday.
Panel Chairman Richard Burr and Vice
Chairman Mark Warner said they will schedule the hearing for after Memorial
Day. A date has not been set.
"The committee looks forward to
receiving testimony from the former director on his role in the development of
the intelligence community assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 US
elections, and I am hopeful that he will clarify for the American people recent
events that have been broadly reported in the media," Burr said in a
statement.
Warner said Comey's testimony would
help "answer some of the questions that have arisen since Director Comey
was so suddenly dismissed by the President."
Comey has been at the heart of the
scandals enveloping the White House after Trump fired him last week while he
was leading the FBI's investigation into Russia's election-year meddling and
contact with the Trump campaign.
Comey's testimony has been sought by
numerous congressional committees after news broke last week that he had
written a memo stating President Donald Trump had asked him to drop his
investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
But it was still an open question
whether Comey would appear publicly, and many lawmakers began to doubt he would
testify after the Justice Department named Robert Mueller as special counsel to
investigate allegations of collusion between Russian officials and Trump campaign
aides in Moscow's efforts to influence the election.
House oversight committee Chairman
Jason Chaffetz announced a hearing next week and invited Comey to testify, but
he did so before making contact with Comey, and it's unlikely the former FBI
director plans to attend. Chaffetz, who announced Thursday he is leaving
Congress at the end of June, has requested Comey's memos, as has the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
But it appears Comey has chosen to
testify just once more before Congress.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck
Grassley and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein issued a joint statement Friday
saying they were "extremely disappointed" he declined an invitation
to testify before their panel.
"There is no reason he can't
testify before both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees, particularly
given that the Judiciary committee is the FBI's primary oversight committee
with broad jurisdiction over federal law enforcement, FISA and the nomination
of the next FBI director," the senators said.
House oversight committee Chairman
Jason Chaffetz also announced a hearing next week in which he had invited Comey
to testify, but he did so before making contact with Comey, and it's unlikely
the former FBI director plans to attend.
A Chaffetz spokeswoman did not immediately
respond to a request to comment on whether Comey had indicated if he would
testify. Chaffetz, who announced Thursday he is leaving Congress at the end of
June, has requested Comey's memos, as has the Senate Judiciary Committee and
the House Intelligence Committee.
Whether Comey would testify at all
about his memos and firing before Congress was an open question among lawmakers
after the Justice Department on Wednesday named Robert Mueller as special
counsel to investigate allegations of collusion between Russian officials and
Trump campaign aides in Moscow's efforts to influence the election.
There were concern among some, such
as Sen. Lindsey Graham, that the special counsel would diminish Congress'
investigations, though the leaders of those probes have insisted they will continue along with Mueller's investigation.
Comey's memo about Trump's comments
on the Flynn investigation has only added to concerns about the White House's
shifting explanations for Comey's dismissal.
White House aides initially said
that Trump fired him on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein over Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's
emails, but the President later contradicted his aides and said he had already
planned to fire Comey.
Rosenstein confirmed to lawmakers in
briefings this week that the President already planned to remove Comey when he
wrote his memo detailing the FBI director's alleged transgressions.
source:cnn.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment