WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will not invoke executive privilege to prevent former FBI Director James Comey from testifying before Congress Thursday.
Despite having that "established" power, deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, Trump will not assert the privilege in order to "facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence Committee."
Comey will head to the Hill on Thursday for a highly-anticipated testimony — his first since President Trump unexpectedly fired him last month.
Trump contradicted White House staffers who explained that a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was critical to helping Trump decide to fire Comey. But in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, Trump said he would've fired Comey "regardless" of that memo.
Since the firing, which ushered in weeks of political turmoil in Washington, NBC News learned that Comey kept memos about his conversations with Trump — including one that said Trump asked him to shut down an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
