WASHINGTON (CN) - The House Oversight Committee said Wednesday that it will hold a May 24 hearing to investigate if President Donald Trump interfered in FBI probe, and that it has asked former FBI Director James Comey to testify.
In the meantime, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday they've also asked ousted FBI Director James Comey to testify to Congress.
"I think the legislative process is pretty much ground to a halt until you get the Comey episode dealt with," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a member of the committee.
Meanwhile, the White House continued to try to get its arms around the unfolding scandal.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force 1 Wednesday after President Trump delivered the commencement address at the US Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, White House spokesman Sean Spicer did not directly address Comey's pending testimony before Congress, but did say "The president is confident in the events that he has maintained and he wants the truth in these investigations to get to the bottom of the situation.
"There are two investigations going on in the House and Senate and he wants to get to the bottom of this,” Spicer assured the reporters on board.
“The president has been very clear that the account that was published is not an accurate description of how the event occurred. I’m not going to give any other comment on that,” the White House spokesman added.
By mid-day Wednesday, three congressional committees had formally requested to see memos penned by former FBI Director James Comey that reportedly detail President Donald Trump's request that the agency drop its investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian meddling into the 2016 election.
The New York Times report on Tuesday that Trump asked Comey to drop an investigation into his fired adviser's ties to the Russian government has sent Capitol Hill spinning, with some Democrats even raising the specter of impeachment if the memos are accurate.
In addition to sending a letter to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe requesting copies of the bombshell memos, the Senate Intelligence Committee has also reissued its request that Comey come testify before the committee both in public and behind closed doors.
"What we have now are at least the potential of tapes, transcripts and memos," Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters on Wednesday. "We want to see it all."
The committee is in the middle of a lengthy investigation into Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election, which intelligence agencies have confirmed was undertaken to help Trump beat Hillary Clinton.
Comey declined the committee's first request to appear, reportedly because he wanted to testify in public rather than in a closed session. Warner said the effort to get Comey before the committee is bipartisan and that he expects to receive an answer from McCabe within 72 hours.
"I don't think I know any member that I've talked to publically or privately, Democrat or Republican, that doesn't think that Jim Comey deserves a chance to tell his side of the story," Warner said.