Former FBI Director James Comey has asked a federal court to reject a subpoena he received from House Republicans for closed-door testimony, arguing that leaks from the hearing would harm both his credibility and the public perception of investigations by the Justice Department, Politico reports. Comey’s legal team filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to quash the subpoena for the appearance, which is scheduled for Monday. Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch was also subpoenaed for a closed-door hearing on Tuesday. Republican lawmakers are investigating decision-making by the FBI and the main Justice Department in 2016 and 2017, when some officials believe the bureau downplayed the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server and instead began looking into possible connections between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Comey is asking the court to reject the subpoena in order to prevent the Judiciary and Oversight committees “from using the pretext of a closed interview to peddle a distorted, partisan political narrative about the Clinton and Russia investigations through selective leaks.” The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee. Comey argues that because of Trump’s criticisms, a combination of leaks and his tweets have created a “corrosive narrative” claiming that Clinton committed serious crimes but was “given unwarranted leniency by an FBI and DOJ that were loyal to her and her party,” while the president has “been saddled with unwarranted scrutiny, for purely partisan political reasons, by the same FBI and DOJ.” Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said on Twitter that he’d offered to release transcripts of Comey’s testimony after the interview, a process he said “ensures both transparency and access for the American people to all the facts.”