Former FBI Director James Comey has dropped his lawsuit and made an agreement with the GOP to testify before Congress.
Grateful for a fair hearing from judge. Hard to protect my rights without being in contempt, which I don’t believe in. So will sit in the dark, but Republicans agree I’m free to talk when done and transcript released in 24 hours. This is the closest I can get to public testimony.
— James Comey (@Comey) December 2, 2018
Comey challenged a subpoena issued by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican head of the House Judiciary Committee, to appear before the panel.
The former G-man said he would voluntarily testify, but wanted to do so during an open hearing so his answers couldn’t be taken out of context.
Lawyers for both sides argued in federal court on Friday with the judge saying he would make a decision by Monday.
Republicans want to grill Comey on his oversight of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of an email server when she was secretary of state and Russian meddling in the election.
Alan Dershowitz argued on Fox News that the testimony should be public:
I think that’s right, I’d rather see the full testimony rather than let any politician, left or right, filter the evidence to skew on their side. But as with most things, I’m betting there will be no conclusive evidence to come out. This thing just seems to keep dragging endlessly on and on.