Comey just tweeted about the arrangements for his testimony:

[Mrs. Overall]

Link to tweet

James Comey
‏Verified account

Grateful for a fair hearing from judge. Hard to protect my rights without being in contempt, which I don’t believe in. So will sit in the dark, but Republicans agree I’m free to talk when done and transcript released in 24 hours. This is the closest I can get to public testimony.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. "Transcript" will be released ... I can't wait to see the redacted blotches. nt

[Duppers]

9. Of course. nt

[brooklynite]

18. No - agreement was for full transcript.

[DallasNE]

19. Comey's Tweet Said "Transcript" Not "Full Transcript"

Looks like redaction is allowed and thus forthcoming.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. He would never admit it, but Jimmy probably feels a bit stupid for

re-opening the Hillary email thing right before the election.

[Hortensis]

4. I'd rather he was afraid. HIS story is innocent

high-minded stupidity. It's just coincidence that all his highly unethical actions uniformly assisted Republicans and hurt Democrats.

[FakeNoose]

17. I read his book "A Higher Loyalty"

... in which he says he was between a rock and a hard place. Sort of like Obama was, they both knew way more than they were allowed to reveal to the public. Comey says in the book that he wasn't playing politics and he has no connection to the Republican Party. He hasn't voted in any election since he returned to the FBI. He was pretty sure that Hillary would win the election in any case, and his letter to the Senate was supposed to be kept confidential. Well of course it wasn't because Jason Chaffetz blasted it all over the media in no-time.

What bothers me about Comey is the legal backflips he goes through, trying to explain why he never announced that Trump was under investigation. Meanwhile he wasted no time announcing that he was re-opening the investigation into Hillary's emails. That was a serious error in judgment. The FBI was investigating Trump for years before he ever decided to run for the Presidency, mainly for money-laundering in the casinos and real estate operations.

[UniteFightBack]

25. Yes that is glaring....mouth shut re: rump but open book about Hillary. I was hoping that R's

or NYC FBI were threatening to leak the "reopening of the investigation" if he didn't come out with a statement....and that's why he felt he had to do it. But so far I see no omission of this nature. In my mind that would help to redeem an irredeemable thing he did.

But one thing I remember..there is something off with the timeline of the cops getting Weiners computer and then this announcement...the cops sat on the computer for weeks and then decided to look at it just at the right time before the election...that is what I remember - thinking this is a set up.

[mucifer]

28. he was a republican and that's what almost all of them do. Luckily it doesn't seem that

Mueller is one of those kinds of republicans.

[2naSalit]

3. " Republicans agree I'm free to talk when done "

Hope he's done real quick so he can talk.

[erronis]

16. And hope he doesn't suffer from a heart attack when leaving the hearing

Stranger things have happened.

[SpankMe]

31. They should search the building for bone saws before he gets inside. n/t

[2naSalit]

35. Indeed...nt

[getagrip_already]

5. odd that nunes would agree to that.....

They have something up their sleeve they want to get out. Maybe they will focus on his actions on the second presser just before the election, trying to turn dem support for him off?

They don't get we both hate him for that but support the legitimacy of starting the russia investigations.

But they may be trying to get him on record for why he held the presser. Who was threatening to release the info if he didn't.. Why did he lie to the public when the fbi already knew there were no new emails on that laptop.... Was he trying to swing the election (a crime)? Was he working in collusion with other agents to swing the election ( a conspiracy, also a felony). If he conspired to commit fraud against the us once, why not multiple times?

[DallasNE]

22. The FBI Knew They Had A Backup File

The New" EMAIL they were hoping to find was email that Clinton deleted between the date of the newly discovered backup file and when Clinton turned over her server.

[getagrip_already]

32. it only takes a few minutes.....

For them to scan an entire email cache and determine if there is anything new there.

Believe me, they have VERY sophisticated email scanning tools. They can find either partial or complete matches of something they have within minutes.

They knew almost right away there was nothing new on wieners laptop wrt hilary or his wife. They had that laptop for weeks before comey held that october pressser.

Yet, they held it out as something that needed to be looked at further. It was BS at the time, and it's BS now.

[DallasNE]

34. Had To Reopen the case

In order to examine the content because it would have been an illegal search otherwise. Knowing he had a backup file Comey was looking for deleted email and he found some, such as an exchange between the women where they discussed what they were going to wear to an event that night.

[WeekiWater]

6. Never trust a Republican...

Comey or any of the rest of them.

I can appreciate certain aspects of Comey but I have little trust in him. It did really bother me to see him get fired as he did, but I already knew Trump was a small minded and punitive coward. Comey truly threw Trump an assist during the election.

[Baltimike]

7. I'm with you...Comey violated the g-d Hatch Act

(or was it the Logan Act?) and was a principle in going after the Clintons.

[paleotn]

8. Just don't show up.

They're lame ducks. They won't do a damn thing but flop around and whine. Like that's any different than if he testifies.

[dhol82]

10. What would happen to him if he didn't show up?

Curious.

[paleotn]

15. Contempt of Congress

A heavy fine and possible jail time....if they ever get to that point. With the Dems taking over in January, they'll never get to that.

[dhol82]

33. Thanks.

I figured since it’s so close to the new congress being seated that there would be little chance of consequences.

[Charlotte Little]

11. Agreed

And since when did Comey suddenly become so principled? Maybe he should have tried harder to be back in 2016.

[StevieM]

12. It's a shame he didn't show that same fairness to HRC. (eom)

[elmac]

14. yep nt

[Garion_55]

13. He should plead the Fifth

And promise to return to testify next year under Democratic Leadership

[dlk]

20. Whether Comey's Intentions Were Good, Bad or Indifferent...

...he is still guilty of using his position in a highly partisan and likely illegal way (not to mention sexist) that impacted the outcome of a presidential election. He is no Boy Scout.

[Power 2 the People]

21. Karl Rove just says "fuck you,I'm not coming" to us and he gets away with it.

No charges.No consequences.

[SayItLoud]

23. 24 hour heads up and lead for tRUMP to start the twitter storm. nt

[Roadside Attraction]

24. And Comey believed the Republicans' promises?

I always thought he was smart.

[ooky]

26. I can't believe he is agreeing to this.

Just confuse, avoid, and delay for a freakin' month. Geez. Waste of time and money.

[Squinch]

27. He sounds like Susan Collins: "They promised me they will play nice and do good things."

Asshole.

[Honeycombe8]

29. So a judge is forcing him to have a hearing behind closed doors? I wonder why. nt

[B Stieg]

30. Article I, Section 6, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution

He's relying on the "Speech and Debate" clause...

(https://constitutionallawreporter.com/article-01-section-06/)