The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday asked the FBI to turn over memos prepared by former Director James Comey detailing conversations he had with the White House and Justice Department about the FBI’s Russia investigations.

Separately, four top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote separately to the FBI and to the White House seeking any documents that detail communications between the fired FBI director and Trump, as well as other paperwork on the matter stemming back to the Obama administration.

“We need all those memos,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in an interview. “We’re going to try to get not just the Comey memo as you heard in my letter, but all memos, all communications between everybody — Comey, and other people in the hierarchy — and throughout the organization, wherever we have to, and over a long period of time.”

The senators requesting the documents — Grassley and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) — said they want the records by May 24. Grassley also said in the interview that he will "probably, yes" call Comey to testify before his committee.

In the Intelligence Committee, Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) also sent a letter Wednesday to Comey asking that he testify before their panel in open and closed sessions. The senators had previously asked Comey to testify in closed session this Tuesday, but he declined.

Their request follows a letter House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz sent the FBI on Tuesday asking for copies of memos documenting Comey's communications with President Donald Trump. “I have my subpoena pen ready,” the Utah Republican added on Twitter.

Lawmakers in both parties are demanding that Comey testify before Congress and that his memos be turned over after a New York Times report that Comey wrote in a memo that Trump asked him to shut down the FBI’s investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The Times also reported that Comey wrote memos detailing all his conversations with Trump.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has also invited Comey to testify before a Senate committee.</s>Trump in deep water: Congress demands FBI turns over documents of Comey with the president

United States House of Representatives Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz is demanding the FBI hand over all documents detailing communications between President Donald Trump and fired agency Director James Comey within the next week.

The Utah Republican's request Tuesday comes after an explosive New York Times report that Trump asked Comey to put a stop to a federal investigation into his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

If true, these memoranda raise questions as to whether the president attempted to influence or impede the FBI's investigation as it relates to Lt. Gen. Flynn, Chaffetz wrote to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

So the committee can consider that question and others, provide, no later than May 24, 2017, all memoranda, notes, summaries, and recordings referring to or relating to any communications between Comey and the president.

Comey detailed the conversation with Trump in a memo, reportedly one of several documents the former FBI chief wrote as he attempted to create a paper trail about his interactions with the president.

“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Comey, according to the New York Times report

Chaffetz has threatened to issue a subpoena if the FBI doesn't hand over the Comey memo willingly.

The Oversight Committee is going to get the Comey memo, if it exists, Chaffetz tweeted. I need to see it sooner rather than later. I have my subpoena pen ready.

A chorus of Democrats and Republicans have also called on Comey to testify publicly about the memo and his other interactions with Trump as soon as possible.</s>(WASHINGTON) — The Republican chairman of a House oversight committee says he will ask former FBI Director James Comey to testify at a hearing next week that will look into whether President Donald Trump pressured Comey to shut down an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz said in a tweet Wednesday that he still hasn't spoken with Comey about testifying. But he has set a hearing for May 24.

The moves comes a day after it was disclosed that Comey had written a memo detailing how Trump had asked him to shut down the investigation into Flynn. The FBI has been looking into Flynn for months as part of a counterintelligence investigation.

Chaffetz has demanded that the FBI turn over Comey's memos. He says he wants to determine whether the president attempted to influence or impede the FBI's investigation into Flynn.</s>Congressional Republicans are increasing pressure on the administration to produce records related to the latest string of controversies involving President Donald Trump, amid flagging confidence in the White House and a growing sense that scandal is overtaking the presidency.

As the White House sought to contain the damage from two major scandals, leaders of two key Senate committees asked the FBI for documents related to former director James Comey, who was leading an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election before Trump fired him last week.

The Republican chairmen and ranking Democrats on the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees asked the FBI to hand over Comey's notes about his communications with the White House and senior Justice Department officials related to the Russia investigation.

The Judiciary Committee leaders also asked the White House to provide any records of interactions between Trump officials and Comey, including audio recordings. In a nod to lawmakers' strong desire to hear from the former director, the Intelligence Committee leaders asked him to testify in both open and closed sessions.

Meanwhile, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, scheduled a hearing for next Wednesday about whether Trump interfered in the FBI's investigation and invited Comey to testify.

The requests came after news reports revealed Trump's disclosure of highly classified material to Russian officials and an alleged attempt to shut down an investigation into his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will brief the full Senate on Comey's firing.

On Wednesday, some members of the GOP began predicting that the party will rally behind some sort of independent investigative body to probe the two issues.

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., co-chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group, said Wednesday that the collective political fallout from the past week "will make it difficult" for Republicans to resist a change in approach.

Dent said he does not like investigations by independent prosecutors because they "tend to take on a life of their own" and instead preferred an independent commission of outside experts.

"We may have to move in that direction," Dent said Wednesday at a forum moderated by Center Forward, a moderate Democratic organization.

The collision of the two stories Tuesday night left Republicans reeling, with a senior GOP senator comparing the situation to Watergate, and Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., directing the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to immediately seek records from the FBI.

Ryan was careful to strike an evenhanded tone Wednesday, saying congressional committees would continue to conduct oversight "regardless of what party is in the White House" but seeming to dismiss some concerns that have arisen in the wake of news about a memo by Comey suggesting that Trump had pressured him to drop the Flynn investigation.

"There's clearly a lot of politics being played here," Ryan said.

He noted FBI acting director Andrew McCabe's recent comment that there has been "no effort to impede our investigation." McCabe made the remark in a congressional hearing when asked whether the firing of Comey had affected the bureau's work.

Ryan also sounded a skeptical note about Comey's actions after the meeting in which Trump allegedly asked him to "let this go," referring to the Flynn probe.

"If this happened as he described, why didn't [Comey] take action at the time?" Ryan said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has not directly commented on allegations that Trump tried to pressure Comey. He did not mention the president or the controversies facing the White House during his morning remarks on the Senate floor and ignored questions from reporters in the halls of the Capitol.

As they pleaded for more information from the White House, lawmakers from both parties rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin's unusual offer Wednesday morning to provide a record of the meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump shared the classified information.

"The idea that we would accept any evidence from President Putin is absurd," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in an interview with CNN.

"I don't talk to murderous dictators like Vladimir Putin, so Putin's word to me doesn't mean a whole lot," Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a member of the Republican leadership, told the network.

"Probably the last person the president needs to vouch for him right now is Vladimir Putin," Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview with CBS News. "Its credibility would be less than zero." Concerns about Trump are clearly growing among Republican lawmakers.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on developments on Capitol Hill about the House oversight investigation into former FBI Director Comey's memos (all times local):

The ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee is questioning why his GOP counterpart isn't pressing the Trump administration with the same zeal he showed during congressional investigations of Hillary Clinton.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, says that Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, had former FBI Director James Comey before the committee within 48 hours of Comey announcing that Clinton wouldn't face criminal charges for her use of a private email server while secretary of state. And Cummings is wondering why Chaffetz "is not doing the same here?"

Chaffetz rose to national prominence as a public face of GOP efforts to probe Clinton's activities in advance of the 2016 election. Chaffetz was also assigned to the Benghazi select committee investigating the deaths of four Americans during a 2012 terrorist attack in Libya.

The oversight committee chosen by House Speaker Paul Ryan to investigate whether President Donald Trump obstructed an FBI probe has been the most publicly aggressive group involved in the cautious, GOP-led investigations.

But the fate of its investigation hinges on Ryan's lukewarm support and the sometimes fractious working relationship between its Republican and Democratic leaders.

Ryan said Wednesday the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will take the lead scrutinizing reports that Trump pressed FBI Director James Comey to shut down the bureau's investigation into Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Hours after Ryan's announcement, the committee's chairman, Jason Chaffetz of Utah, tweeted that he has already scheduled a public hearing for next week into the matter and will ask Comey to testify.

The Republican chairman of a House oversight committee says he will ask former FBI Director James Comey to testify at a hearing next week that will look into whether President Donald Trump pressured Comey to shut down an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz said in a tweet Wednesday that he still hasn't spoken with Comey about testifying. But he has set a hearing for May 24.

The moves comes a day after it was disclosed that Comey had written a memo detailing how Trump had asked him to shut down the investigation into Flynn. The FBI has been looking into Flynn for months as part of a counterintelligence investigation.

Chaffetz has demanded that the FBI turn over Comey's memos. He says he wants to determine whether the president attempted to influence or impede the FBI's investigation into Flynn.

The top Democrat on a key House oversight panel says Speaker Paul Ryan "has shown he has zero appetite for any investigation of President Trump."

The comments by Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings came as Democrats sought to force a House vote to establish an independent commission to investigate Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

Cummings said the Government Reform and Oversight panel needs to subpoena documents for its Russia probe and summon former FBI Director James Comey for a public hearing.

Cummings reminded reporters that panel chairman Jason Chaffetz held a hearing featuring Comey just 48 hours after Comey announced there was no evidence warranting charges against Hillary Clinton after an investigation found she had improperly handled classified information on a private email server.</s>The Republican chairman of the House oversight committee says he will seek copies of any memos former FBI Director James Comey wrote about his meetings with President Donald Trump.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said in a tweet that he has his "subpoena pen ready." The move by Chaffetz comes just hours after the disclosure that Comey wrote in a memo that Trump asked him to shut down a federal investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

"If the memo exists, I need to see it, and I need to see it right away," said Chaffetz, outgoing chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"We are drafting the necessary paperwork to get the memo, so we will find out in a hurry if it's out there." Chaffetz told NBC News, adding that if the memo exists and accurately recorded the conversation, "that seems like an extraordinary use of influence to try to shut down an investigation being done by the FBI."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, said the country "is being tested in unprecedented ways."</s>Washington: A US House Committee has requested the FBI to provide all documents that its former director James Comey had on president Donald Trump, a media report said.

The request, signed by Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Republican Jason Chaffetz on Tuesday, includes "memoranda, notes, summaries, and recordings" held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The documents have to be delivered by 24 May, Efe News said.

"If true, these memoranda raise questions as to whether the president attempted to influence or impede the FBI's investigation as it relates to Lt Gen Flynn (former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn)," Chaffetz said in a letter to the agency's acting director Andrew G McCabe.

This request comes after The New York Times revealed on Tuesday the existence of documents that Comey wrote shortly after having conversations with Trump.

In one of these documents, Comey picked up Trump's request to end an investigation into Flynn's ties with Russia.

"He's a good guy. I hope you can let this go," Trump told Comey, according to the FBI's former director memo quoted by The New York Times.

Trump on 9 May fired Comey, who led the FBI investigation into the ties between Russian officials and Trump's presidential campaign, an issue that Congress also addresses.

Flynn has been at the centre of that investigation shortly after Trump's arrival to the White House.

Flynn advised Trump on foreign policy during the campaign and was later appointed NSA, a position he was forced to resign after lying about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador in Washington.

Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee ordered him to hand over all documents related to Russia, after his refusal to cooperate with the investigation without prior immunity.</s>Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Tuesday that he needed to see an alleged memo in which then-FBI Director James Comey claimed President Trump asked him to shut down an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

"I want to see the memo [and] I want to talk to Director Comey to determine how contemporaneous his recording of the conversation was," Gowdy told host Martha MacCallum. "What did Director Comey hear? How did he take it? That can only be done ... that can only be done by looking at the memo and talking to Director Comey."

Late Tuesday, House oversight committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, requested the FBI submit documents related to any communications between Comey and Trump.

Gowdy, a member of the committee, told MacCallum that Comey was not required to report the Feb. 14 conversation with Trump to the Justice Department.

"I don’t think Director Comey reported President Obama the four different times he prejudged the outcome of an investigation," Gowdy told MacCallum. "Director Comey has not been afraid in the past to say no to presidents and attorney generals. ... I think if he felt like this was an effort to influence him, he knows exactly what to do."

Gowdy also discussed why he took his name out of the running to replace Comey as FBI director.

"Quite frankly, I think the country deserves a woman or a man who is devoid of political taint," he said. "Whether I like it or not, whether I wish I could wash it off or not, I have been in politics for six years."</s>Arizona GOP Senator John McCain, a former presidential candidate, said Tuesday that the latest revelations out of the Trump White House are “at a point where it’s of Watergate size and scale.”

“We’ve seen this movie before,” McCain said at a dinner where he was receiving the International Republican Institute’s Freedom Award, hours after it was revealed that the US president in February had urged James Comey, the former FBI director, to drop an investigation into ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn’s communications with the Russians. The report was based on a memo Comey drafted after a meeting with Trump following Flynn’s dismissal on February 13. It was first reported by the New York Times and later confirmed to other media outlets.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump is accused of telling Comey, according to the memo written by the former FBI chief, who was sacked last week.

“He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go,” Trump reportedly told him.

The Flynn-related report came some 24 hours after the Washington Post dropped a bombshell article revealing that Trump had disclosed highly classified intelligence obtained by Israel to Russians officials –Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and its ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak — in the White House last week.

Both reports were at first denied and then rebutted by the White House.

“The shoes continue to drop, and every couple days there’s a new aspect,” McCain said in comments reported by the Daily Beast on Tuesday.

McCain said Trump needs to “get it all out … and the longer you delay, the longer it’s going to last.”

McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, also called it “unacceptable” for Trump to invite Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov into the Oval Office last week, calling him a “stooge.”

Meanwhile, the Republican chairman of the House oversight committee , Jason Chaffetz, wrote a letter to the FBI requesting that it turn over all documents and recordings that detail communications between Comey and Trump.

In his letter Tuesday, Chaffetz said he was making the request to determine whether the president attempted to influence or impede the bureau’s investigation into Flynn’s contacts with the Russians.

Chaffetz’s letter to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe requests all memoranda, notes, summaries and recordings that relate to any communications between Comey and the president.

The letter gave the FBI a week to produce the records.

The intensifying drama comes as Trump is set to embark Friday on his first foreign trip, including to Israel, which had been optimistically viewed by some aides as an opportunity to reset an administration floundering under an inexperienced president.

When Trump fired Comey, he said he did so based on Comey’s very public handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe and how it affected his leadership of the FBI. But the White House has provided differing accounts of the firing. And lawmakers have alleged that the sudden ouster was an attempt to stifle the bureau’s investigation into Trump associates’ ties to Russia’s meddling in the campaign.</s>The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee demanded Tuesday that the FBI turn over all documents it has about communications between President Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey.

Chairman Jason Chaffetz of Utah sent the letter (PDF) a few hours after The New York Times first reported that Trump allegedly asked Comey to end the FBI’s investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned in February following reports that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.

NBC News has independently confirmed the Times report, along with additional details. Multiple sources with firsthand knowledge of the memo said it was part of a paper trail that Comey built to document what he believed to be Trump’s efforts to derail the FBI’s investigation of alleged Russian ties to his presidential campaign.

In an interview with NBC News, Chaffetz said that if the memo exists and accurately recorded the conversation, “that seems like an extraordinary use of influence to try to shut down an investigation being done by the FBI.”

Chaffetz tweeted later: “I have my subpoena pen ready.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin — a Republican, like Trump and Chaffetz — appeared to endorse Chaffetz’s demand for the FBI documents.

“We need to have all the facts, and it is appropriate for the House Oversight Committee to request this memo,” said AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan.

Chaffetz will also have the support of Democratic members of his committee.

All Democrats on both the Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee sent a separate letter Tuesday demanding an investigation into whether Trump and other top officials “are engaged in an ongoing conspiracy to obstruct” FBI, Justice Department and congressional investigations.
Jason Chaffetz, the Chairman of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sends a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation demanding all documents related to correspondence between President Trump and former FBI Director James Comey.