Former FBI Director James Comey has agreed to testify before the Senate intelligence committee after Memorial Day, on his role in the development of the US intelligence agencies' assessment that Russia interfered in last year's election.
The committee's chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, and the ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, announced on Friday that Comey will testify in an open setting before the committee.
I hope that former Director Comey’s testimony will help answer some of the questions that have risen since Director Comey was so suddenly dismissed by the president,Senator Mark Warner
Senator Mark further lauded Comey for having “served his country with honour for many years”, adding that he deserved a chance to present his case.
Moreover, the American people deserve an opportunity to hear it.
The date of the hearing has not yet been set.
The White House has been thrown into turmoil by a succession of stunning allegations against the president this week, including that he may have obstructed justice by asking Comey to drop an investigation into one of his top advisors.
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that a senior White House official was now under investigation as part of a probe over Russian efforts to tilt the elections in Trump's favour.
And The New York Times said the US President had told top Russian officials that Comey's sacking had relieved "great pressure" on him.
Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week that Comey was a "nut job," according to the Times, citing notes taken at the meeting and read to the paper by a US official.
That flies in the face of the White House's public insistence that Comey's dismissal was not linked to his ongoing investigation.
The president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is among those whose contacts with the Russian government have come under scrutiny.
On Thursday, Trump declared himself the victim of the "greatest witch hunt" in American political history and denied allegations of collusion.
"There is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but I can always speak for myself, and the Russians – zero," Trump told reporters.
The White House on Friday predicted that the investigation would back up Trump's account.
As the president has stated before, a thorough investigation will confirm that there was no collusion between the campaign and any foreign entity.White House Spokesman Sean Spicer
(With inputs from PTI and AP)
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