The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee wonders whether former FBI Director James Comey believes he deserves “special treatment” after he filed a lawsuit in federal court fighting a subpoena to testify in private sessions.
In a pair of tweets Thursday, Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., condemned Comey for doing what other witnesses have already done.
“The truth IS best served with transparency. What is Director Comey trying to hide from the American people with his baseless motion to quash?” Goodlatte said.
“It appears Mr. Comey believes he deserves special treatment, as he is the only witness refusing to either appear voluntarily or comply with a subpoena,” he added. “He needs to appear before the Committees, as all other witnesses have done. Let the facts come to light.”
Comey said he will only testify in an open hearing for fear of targeted leaks by Republicans. Republicans on the Judiciary and Oversight committees sent subpoenas to Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch to testify next month for their joint investigation into the Justice Department and FBI’s actions ahead of the 2016 presidential election. This includes the probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
In the 17-page motion filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late Thursday, a lawyer for Comey says the closed-door deposition “exceeds a proper legislative purpose, is issued in violation of House rules, and unduly prejudices and harasses the witness.”
So far it is unclear whether Lynch will comply with the subpoena she received.
House Republicans only have a few weeks left before the end of the year and the start of a new session of Congress in which Democrats will have the majority and hence all the chairmanships.
The likely incoming chairman of Judiciary, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., complained when the subpoenas surfaced, after the midterm elections, that they were “coming out of the blue, with very little time left on the calendar.”
Republicans have used the “special treatment” line against another prominent Democratic figure: Hillary Clinton. Allies of President Trump, including GOP lawmakers, have griped about how the FBI, when Comey was in charge, let Clinton off easy in regards to the investigation into her unauthorized email server which she used while serving as secretary of state.
