Former FBI chief Comey postpones testimony before House committee

[May 23, 2017]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey is delaying an appearance before the U.S. House Oversight Committee that had been planned for Wednesday, the panel's chairman said on Monday.

In a post on Twitter, Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who will step down from his seat in Congress in June, said he had spoken with Comey who told him that before testifying in public he wanted to speak with former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating ties between Russia and the presidential election campaign of Donald Trump.

An aide to the Oversight Committee could not confirm when the hearing would be rescheduled.

President Trump fired Comey on May 9. After reports that Trump asked Comey to stop investigating his campaign advisors ties, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein hired Mueller as special counsel to lead the investigation, a move expected to delay congressional hearings into Russian ties.

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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James Comey arrives to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin