If Comey still led the bureau, Trump would have more recourse to block his testimony.
Because Comey clearly has a story to tell. After all, Comey is the same 6-foot-8-inch former FBI Director who attempted to "blend in" with the blue drapes during a previous White House visit with his then-boss, President Donald Trump, who fired him last month.
As Comey's open hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee looms closer, the Trump administration has sent mixed signals over whether it's looking into the possibility of invoking executive privilege to prevent Comey from disclosing the content of his conversations with Trump.
After Comey's dismissal, news reports emerged that Trump asked Comey to end the probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn during a February meeting in the Oval Office, the day after Flynn was sacked for misrepresenting his contacts with the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak. Why would Trump say that before Comey had a chance to respond to Trump's version of the meetings?
Comey filed memos detailing those interactions, his associates have told news outlets. The White House is anxious that Comey will have a very different version of those discussions and that he felt pressured by Trump to drop the pending investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Instead, we are likely to hear that Comey is a careful note-taker, though it is doubtful that the actual notes will be produced.
Comey has met with Mueller and hashed out which topics are in-bounds, and which are best to avoid in order to protect Mueller's investigation.
Mr. Comey was cleared to testify by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, another former FBI director now overseeing the investigation into all things Russian Federation. The timing, he noted, is hard.
"I think Jim Comey deserves to have his, you know, in effect, day in court since the president has disparaged him so much", Warner said. "He's just putting his team together". "The exception would be any conversations that haven't yet been made public, by Comey or by Trump, assuming such conversations exist".
Asian currencies edge down on caution ahead of risk events
US stocks opened slightly higher on Thursday, as investors mainly focused on former FBI Director James Comey's testimony. Treasury 30-year, 10-year and 2-year benchmark yields hit session highs after the release of Comey's written testimony.
"There's a history of Congressional investigations messing up criminal prosecutions", Butler said.
If Comey refuses to testify, Congress could subpoena him and then find him in contempt of Congress.
But they explained that they are certainly curious.
Collins added that while the committee would still benefit from having an "experienced special investigator" to oversee the ongoing investigations, she commended the staff of experts and the intelligence community for the extraordinarily complex work being done thus far.
She also cited McCabe's testimony to the Senate panel last month that "there has been no effort to impede our investigation to date", which appears to conflict with subsequent news accounts of Comey's memo detailing a conversation in which Trump allegedly asked him to back off the Flynn probe.
That statement turned the public perception of the investigation on its head.
Mr Comey's dismissal was criticised by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Sollenberger said any argument in favor of privilege also could be overcome because the investigation is focused on corruption and possible obstruction of justice.
Comments