After House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz unleashed the power of his "subpoena pen" last night, sending a letter to the FBI's Acting Director Andrew McCabe demanding all Comey-Trump related memos, the Senate Intelligence Committee is now demanding their seat at the table.
According to media reports, the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) has just sent an official invitation to former FBI director James Comey to appear before the panel in both open and closed sessions.
The committee has also requested that Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe hand over any notes that Comey might have made regarding discussions he had with White House or Justice Department officials about Russia's efforts to influence the election.
Here is the full statement from Richard Burr and Vice Chair of the Senate Intel Committee, Mark Warner:
Joint statement with @SenatorBurr: the Senate Intelligence Committee has invited James Comey to testify in open & closed session. pic.twitter.com/lRk0gq9iSV
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) May 17, 2017
According to The Hill, the committee has not yet received a response to their letter, but signaled he was optimistic Comey would testify saying "I hope he'll accept our invitation. I believe he will."
This was the Senate Intelligence Committee’s second invitation extended to Comey after he declined to appear last week behind closed doors, saying he wanted any testimony to be public.
Of course, this all comes in response to the explosive bombshell that the New York Times dropped last night saying that Comey had a collection of detailed memos archiving his interraction with Trump, one of which detailed a conversation in which Trump allegedly urded him to drop the FBI's investigation of Michael Flynn (see "Comey's Revenge: Leaks Memo To NYT Saying Trump Asked Him To End Flynn Investigation").