Warner: Senate Intel has "commitment" to get Comey memos "very soon"
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee said Wednesday the panel has a "committment" to "very soon" receive the memos written by fired FBI Director James Comey.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said the committee will "get a chance to review those memos." He did not say who will provide the memos.
The committee has been requesting the memos for weeks after reports emerged that Comey documented his interactions with Mr. Trump, including one in which Comey claims the president told him to drop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Comey confirmed the existence of the memos in testimony to Congress last month, saying he wrote them to ensure accuracy and released their contents by way of a friend, in hopes a special prosecutor might be appointed to oversee the Russia investigation.
The White House initially said Mr. Trump fired Comey after receiving Department of Justice memos from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that claimed Comey mishandled of the Clinton email investigation. But Mr. Trump told NBC the same week he thought of the "made-up" story of Russia collusion when he fired Comey.
The Senate Intelligence Committee and its counterpart in the House are both investigating Russian election meddling, as well as any ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. The top members of the House Intelligence Committee did not explicitly say they have a similar commitment to receive the Comey memos, although they indicated they believed they will receive them.
Mr. Trump, shortly after firing Comey, floated the idea that tapes might also exist of their conversations, and that Comey should hope no tapes existed. "Lordy, I hope there are tapes," Comey said in his testimony. But the president, after weeks of speculation, tweeted on June 22 that he had no tapes.
CBS News' John Nolan and Nancy Cordes contributed to this report.