James Comey will not testify next week but Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein to brief Senate on firing
The White House has said it fired Comey based on Rosenstein's recommendation.
— -- Ousted FBI Director James Comey will not testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday about the circumstances of his firing, as top members of the panel had invited him to do.
"He won't be testifying on Tuesday but it is our hope in the not too distant future that we can find time for him to come," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the committee's top Democrat, said in an interview today on MSNBC.
Comey will "share his side of the story" at the appropriate place and time, Warner said, adding that he hopes it is before the Intelligence Committee, which he and Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., lead.
Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will brief the full U.S. Senate next week on Comey's firing, according to a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
“Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein’s office has confirmed to Senator Schumer’s office that Mr. Rosenstein will come to brief the full Senate next week. The time and date are still being worked out,” Matt House, a Schumer spokesman, said in a statement.
Schumer said Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had invited Rosenstein to brief the Senate upon Schumer’s request.
The top Senate Democrat said Rosenstein had asked to meet with him when the deputy attorney general visited Capitol Hill Thursday to discuss the Senate Intelligence Committee’s ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election with that panel’s top two members.
But Schumer declined that request because he wanted Rosenstein to meet with the full Senate.
Schumer said he also wants to hear from Attorney General Jeff Sessions but that meeting with Rosenstein would be a good start.
A spokesperson for McConnell had nothing to add.