Joshua Roberts/Reuters
Former FBI Director James Comey has offered to testify in public after declining an invitation to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed hearing next Tuesday. The committee is investigating possible ties between Trump associates and Russian operatives. “He is not going to 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,” Sen. Mark Warner, the committee’s vice chairman, said Friday afternoon on MSNBC. A close associate was later cited by The New York Times saying Comey is willing to testify but wants to do it in public. The ousted FBI director's offer to testify publicly comes after President Trump appeared to threaten him in a Twitter tirade on Friday, saying he’d release “tapes” of the pair’s conversations if Comey talks to the press. Trump abruptly fired Comey earlier this week, saying he'd lost confidence after receiving negative feedback from Comey's superiors. But he later contradicted his own administration’s reasoning for the dismissal, saying he was going to fire Comey “regardless” of what Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote in his memo urging Trump to fire the FBI chief. Comey's dismissal has caused alarm among many lawmakers, as it came just as the FBI was reportedly planning to expand its probe into possible collusion between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin.