Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have issued subpoenas for former FBI Director James Comey and ex-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to testify behind closed doors about their actions during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The head of the panel, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), on Tuesday signed the subpoenas, which require Comey to appear on Dec. 3 and Lynch to be deposed the next day.
The subpoenas were revealed publicly on Thursday.
Comey said he would be willing to appear but only in an open setting.
“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,” he tweeted.
His lawyer, David Kelley, said they would fight so that Comey can testify in an open hearing.
“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,” Kelley said Thursday. “Accordingly, Mr. Comey will resist in court this abuse of process.”
Lynch did not comment.
House GOP members have been investigating Democrats who they believe were biased against President Trump during the campaign, leading to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.
The GOP probes will end on Jan. 3, when the Democrats will assume majority control of the House.
Comey was criticized during the election campaign for announcing that the FBI would not recommend criminal charges against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for using a private e-mail server when she was secretary of state.
Then, just days before the November election, he said the FBI would reopen the investigation into her e-mails.
Trump canned Comey in May 2017.
Lynch came under fire for meeting with former President Bill Clinton in a plane on a tarmac at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix in June 2016 while his wife, who was running against Trump, was under investigation by the Justice Department.
Lynch left office at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency in January 2017.
Republicans on the committee have been signaling for the past few weeks that they were prepared to issue subpoenas for Comey and Lynch before they relinquish control of the panel to Democrats.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn), who is expected to take over chairmanship of the panel, blasted Republicans for the subpoenas, which he said are “coming out of the blue.”