Putin dismisses USA claims about Trump, Russia and elections

Kellyanne Conway said the USA leader will make a decision on whether to invoke a doctrine called executive privilege. He emphasized there was "zero evidence that Trump himself" took any such action and Mr. Comey should be honest with the American people. Comey is likely very aware this sets him up for a major showdown with the president.

An adviser to Trump's campaign and prominent speaker at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Flynn was sacked less than four weeks after Trump's inauguration after claims that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the US, during the presidential transition. Indeed, if Comey wishes to maintain any semblance of the reputation for integrity he so scrupulously cultivated before he blew up the presidential election, he will decline to reveal things that would compromise special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into contacts between Trump campaign aides and Russian Federation. Richard Burr, R-N.C., along with vice chair Sen. If Trump pressured Comey to drop the Flynn investigation, as Comey is expected to testify, then Trump may have engaged in obstruction of justice, according to some lawyers. "In this situation, Comey is no longer working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and may not wish to comply with the privilege", said Jens David Ohlin, an associate dean at Cornell Law School and expert on criminal law.

Next week will bring on high drama and four main characters in the star cast - Mueller, Comey, Kushner and Kislyak - all of whom you may have been reading about as stand-alone stories. Trump has denied firing Comey for the FBI's investigation of his associates' Russian Federation connections, but also said the investigation was on his mind when he did it.

And Comey could soon represent the biggest confrontation to the president's reputation yet.

The account, first reported by the New York Times, was based on a memo Comey wrote after the meeting. Basically, don't hold your breath waiting for some explosive revelation about the Trump-Russia investigation during Comey's testimony.

Comey: I have to give you the same answer, senator. And then afterwards I was told, "You know there was an American gentleman, he was involved in some things".

The Trump administration is excellent at picking out a factual mistake and trying to discredit everything else that person - or the group that person belongs to - says or does. As part of his justification for resurfacing the FBI's Hillary Clinton email investigation 11 days before the election, Comey said investigators found "hundreds and thousands" of Clinton emails on disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner's computer.

And that might be a tough sell in testimony to Congress, too.

Amid a political firestorm touched off by Comey's firing, the Justice Department appointed a special counsel last month to take the lead on the Russian Federation investigation. Comey is no longer under the control of the executive branch, Whittington said, which is why "the executive branch has no capacity to withhold him from Congress".

Collins says that while the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is "taking up a great deal of time" the committee is eager to question Comey on the circumstances following his recent termination.

Instead, we are likely to hear that Comey is a careful note-taker, though it is doubtful that the actual notes will be produced.