James Comey will not testify before Congress on Tuesday
Ousted FBI Director James Comey will not be testifying before Congress on Tuesday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, told MSNBC on Friday.
- FULL COVERAGE: The firing of FBI Director James Comey
"He is not going be testifying on Tuesday but it is our hope in the not too distant future that we can find a time for him to come in and talk to our committee," Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said.
Warner added that Comey "is going to tell his side of the story" once "the appropriate time and place" are figured out.
Warner and Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, had asked Comey to testify. An aide to the committee told CBS News that Comey has been invited to the closed session on Tuesday.
Earlier this week, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, a top Democrat on the committee, told reporters that it's "extremely important that Comey come to an open hearing in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as quickly as possible and testify as to the status of the U.S.-Russia investigation at the time of his firing."
Comey was scheduled to appear at an Intelligence hearing on worldwide threats on Thursday. Instead, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe took his place.
Warner also told MSNBC that if any conversations between President Trump and Comey were taped, then they should be handed over to the Senate Intellifgence committee.
"If there are tapes, I believe maybe it is not our committee's jurisdiction," Warner said. "But we should, one, make sure they are preserved and, two, we should make sure the appropriate committee in Congress should take a look at them."
Mr. Trump alluded to the possible existence of such tapes in a tweet Friday morning.
An individual familiar with Comey's thinking told CBS News on Friday that Comey is not worried about the existence of any tapes. "He's fine," this person says.
