Comey has not received executive privilege notice from Justice Department
Former FBI Director James Comey has not received a notice regarding executive privilege from the Justice Department ahead of his scheduled testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee next week, a Comey associate tells CBS News.
The associate says Comey still wants to testify and provide the "relevant facts" to the committee, CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reports.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked Friday if President Trump would invoke executive privilege to prevent Comey from speaking.
"I have not spoken to counsel yet," Spicer said. "I don't know ... how they're going to respond."
Some legal scholars believe any notice would be legally dubious, and the committee itself may resist any invocation of executive privilege.
The developments come shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked U.S. investigators Friday, questioning whatever proof may exist that his government was behind the U.S. election hacks.
"Which fingerprints?" Putin asked. "IP addresses can be completely made up and sent from your home address by your children."
While Putin has been talking, Russian banker Sergey Gorkov has not.
Gorkov, who heads Russian investment bank VEB, had a secret meeting with Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in December in New York.
The White House said Kushner "was acting as a transition official" by taking the meeting. Sources say the two men discussed setting up a secret back channel between the Trump team and the Russian government.
But VEB told the New York Times Mr. Gorkov met with Kushner in his capacity as a real estate executive.
Whether the meeting was about business or politics, critics say it raises questions.
"The appearances here look really not very good for Mr. Kushner," Tim Frye, a Russia scholar at Columbia University, said.
Frye said Putin likely know about the meeting between Kushner and Gorkov.
"I think it would take extraordinary gumption for the head of a state-owned bank in Russia to engage in diplomacy at this level without at least some support from the Kremlin," Frye said.
The meeting is now part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Trump associates colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election.
Mueller was selected to lead the probe after it was revealed that Comey had written memos about his meetings with Mr. Trump. Sources say one said that Mr. Trump asked Comey to drop his investigation into fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Comey is set to testify before Congress about that memo next Thursday.