Comey Files Legal Challenge to Block House Republican Subpoena

(Bloomberg) -- Former FBI Director James Comey has asked a U.S. court to quash House Republicans’ subpoena for his testimony, saying he wants to testify in public rather than behind closed doors.

In court papers filed late Thursday afternoon in Washington, Comey’s attorneys also asked for an order staying the closed-door congressional interview with members of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees that’s scheduled for Dec. 3 until the court rules.

“Today my legal team filed court papers to try to get transparency from House Republicans,” Comey said on Twitter. “Let the American people watch.”

A week earlier, Comey tweeted, “I will resist a ‘closed door’ thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion.”

President Donald Trump fired Comey last year and has continued to denounce him. Some Republican lawmakers have joined Trump in contending that Comey went easy on Democrat Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while allowing anti-Trump bias in the bureau and the Justice Department to taint the early stages of the continuing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Republican lawmakers have also summoned former Attorney General Loretta Lynch to testify in a closed-door session.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, who’s in line to take over the Judiciary Committee when Democrats take control of the House in January, said earlier this week that he expected Comey would file to quash the subpoena.

Nadler predicted the legal process involved with deciding Comey’s challenge could outlast the current Congress and will “run out the clock” on the Republican subpoena.

Current Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, who signed the subpoenas for Comey and Lynch, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Harris in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.net;Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net;Larry Liebert in Washington at lliebert@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net;Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net

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