FBI Director James Comey will not publicly testify this week after being fired by Donald Trump [update]
Update: despite Mark Warner’s assertion yesterday, chair Richard Burr now says Comey will NOT testify this week after all. The firing appears to have created confusion among committee members. Hell hath no fury like an FBI Director scorned? When the month began, James Comey was testifying before Congress as the person in charge of the ongoing investigation into Donald Trump’s various criminal actives, while Sally Yates was testifying as someone who had been fired by Trump simply for doing her job. Now that Trump has also fired Comey, it’s been confirmed that it won’t stop him from going ahead with his further testimony in the scandal.
The Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner just confirmed during a national television interview that James Comey will still testify before the committee this week during public hearings, as had been planned. But the testimony will now take on a whole new meaning, as Comey is no longer in charge of the investigation into Trump, but instead a victim of Trump’s attempted coverup.
Meanwhile the Republican chair of the committee, Richard Burr, is making clear that he’s “troubled by the timing and reasoning” of Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey (link). That’s a signal that Burr has no intention of interfering with Comey’s scheduled testimony before the committee, and that he’s now looking for answers as well.
James Comey is scheduled to testify in Senate Intel Committee public hearings this Thursday, May 11th, according to the committee website (link). The hearings begin at 10:00 am eastern time, and Comey is one of six people set to testify. It’s a given that he’ll now be the star witness of the day, and that the hearings will be televised live. Help fund Palmer Report
