Former FBI Director James Comey withdrew his legal challenge to a subpoena from the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee for him to testify next week behind closed doors.
In a reversal, Comey indicated he reached an agreement with House Republicans in a tweet Sunday — one day before a judge was set to rule on his effort to block the subpoena as Comey hoped to convince lawmakers to allow a public hearing instead.
“Grateful for a fair hearing from judge. Hard to protect my rights without being in contempt, which I don’t believe in. So will sit in the dark, but Republicans agree I’m free to talk when done and transcript released in 24 hours. This is the closest I can get to public testimony,” Comey tweeted Sunday.
Grateful for a fair hearing from judge. Hard to protect my rights without being in contempt, which I don’t believe in. So will sit in the dark, but Republicans agree I’m free to talk when done and transcript released in 24 hours. This is the closest I can get to public testimony.
— James Comey (@Comey) December 2, 2018
In a court filing in federal court Sunday, Comey’s lawyers moved to withdraw his motion to quash the subpoena, writing he “has now reached an acceptable accommodation” with the House Judiciary Committee for voluntary testimony.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., later put out a statement confirming a deal had been struck.
“Mr. Comey will join us for a closed-door transcribed interview later this week. We will release the transcript of his interview to the public as soon as possible after the interview, in the name of our combined desire for transparency,” Goodlatte said.
Comey filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week after he and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch received subpoenas from Goodlatte compelling them to sit for private depositions this week.
The subpoenas are part of a joint investigation by outgoing Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees into decision-making by the Justice Department and FBI ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Comey said he would only testify publicly, citing “selective leaking and distortion.”
Last week, Goodlatte said he offered to Comey to have the transcript of his testimony released.
“This ensures both transparency and access for the American people to all the facts,” he tweeted.
Lawyers for Comey and House Republicans appeared in court Friday, and the judge hearing the dispute said he would issue his decision on whether to block the subpoena from Republicans on Monday.
Lawyers for Republican lawmakers said in a court filing Friday that halting Comey’s deposition would “have a profound impact” on the House Judiciary committee’s investigation and preclude it from “providing a full accounting of DOJ’s actions in 2016.”
The panel, along with the House Oversight Committee, plans to issue a joint report in the coming weeks, and the GOP’s lawyers accused Comey of attempting to block them from issuing that report.
“At bottom, Mr. Comey seeks to obstruct this congressional investigation by preventing the committee from issuing its final report,” the GOP’s lawyers wrote.
