James Comey's official portrait as the Seventh Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Wikipedia Commons. Author: Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch were subpoenaed by the House Republicans Wednesday in order to force the two to testify behind closed doors for supposed anti-Trump bias.
The subpoenas, which were revealed publicly Thursday, order Comey and Lynch to appear before the GOP controlled House in closed door testimonies scheduled for the first week of December.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R -Va.), the outgoing House Judiciary Committee Chairman, signalled his intention to issue the legal orders earlier this week.
His decision reportedly centers around the belief that the two are part of a deep-state and anti-Trump aligned conspiracy trying to take down the president through by linking his 2016 victory to Russian collusion attempts.
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Comey responded to the news by going to twitter on Thursday, writing, “Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a “closed door” thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.”
A lawyer for the former FBI director, David Kelly, later added that “Mr. Comey embraces and welcomes a hearing open to the public, but the subpoena issued yesterday represents an abuse of process, a divergence from House rules and its presumption of transparency. Accordingly, Mr. Comey will resist in Court this abuse of process.”
Republicans have sought to cast doubt on Comey’s career in government, seemingly in order to downplay accusations of obstruction of justice facing President Donald Trump in connection to Comey’s 2017 firing.
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Lynch has yet to make a public comment about the order,
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