Mr. Trump has made it much harder to assert executive privilege by repeatedly
and publicly referring to his conversations with Mr. Comey, Mr. Rozell said.
director, James B. Comey, to testify next week about his conversations with President Trump, congressional officials said on
Wednesday, setting up a test of the White House’s willingness to cooperate with investigations into Mr. Trump’s associates.
Some in Congress have suggested that Mr. Trump was trying to obstruct the Justice Department investigation by demanding
Mr. Comey’s loyalty, asking him to drop the inquiry, and then firing him last month after being rebuffed.
Putting the highly anticipated hearing on the calendar would force Mr. Trump to decide
whether to invoke executive privilege and try to prevent Mr. Comey from testifying.
Mr. Trump, he said, “has not been careful.”
Several congressional committees want Mr. Comey to testify about his firing, but the former F. B.I.
Mr. Comey is expected to be asked about several conversations he had with the president, including one in which
he says Mr. Trump encouraged him to stop investigating his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn.