Former FBI Director James Comey is skipping a closed-door Senate hearing next week to discuss the intelligence community’s findings about Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
"Because of a previously scheduled engagement, Jim will not be testifying at this hearing," said his attorney, Daniel Richman.
Comey was among four former intelligence community leaders invited to attend the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. The other three, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers, are listed as attendees.
The hearing is a highly anticipated review of top intelligence officials’ judgments about Russia’s election meddling scheme and its intentions in conducting a wide-ranging influence and propaganda operation. The agencies concluded in a January 2017 report that Russia intended to hurt Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and later came to favor Donald Trump’s bid.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee recently accused the intelligence community of employing faulty "tradecraft" when it determined that the Kremlin favored Trump. Democrats on the panel rejected the GOP findings and called it an attempt to protect the president.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has operated with far less partisanship, and it’s unclear whether its findings will support the intelligence community’s determinations or, like the House, find faults. the Senate Intelligence panel’s chairman, Richard Burr (R-N.C.), told reporters he doesn’t expect a public report to be issued on the matter next week.
Committee aides were not immediately available to respond to questions about Comey’s decision not to attend. Comey has been in the midst of a national publicity tour for his new book, "A Higher Loyalty," which documents his career as well as his unceremonious firing by Trump last year.
Trump’s decision to fire Comey sparked a series of recriminations and resulted in the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing Russian election meddling and potential collusion with the Trump campaign as well as the possibility that Trump obstructed justice in the matter.
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