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Comey had filed suit in federal court Thursday to block the subpoena requiring him to testify behind closed doors to the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, instead preferring to testify publicly. In the lawsuit, the former FBI director condemned the process as being powered by “a poisonous combination of presidential tweets and the selective leaking that has become standard practice\" for Republican lawmakers.

Republican lawmakers want one more opportunity before handing control of the House to Democrats to push both Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch on their handling of the FBI’s investigation into former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and their separate probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

\"Mr. Comey asks this Court’s intervention not to avoid giving testimony but to prevent the [panel] from using the pretext of a closed interview to peddle a distorted, partisan political narrative about the Clinton and Russian investigations through selective leaks,\" read Comey's challenge to the subpoena, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Comey also expressed gratitude to U.S. Circuit Court Judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of President Donald Trump, who was expected to make a formal ruling Monday.

\"PHOTO:
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: FBI Director James Comey prepares to testify on May 3, 2017 before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
>

In a tweet Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, called Comey’s lawsuit “baseless.”

“It appears Mr. Comey believes he deserves special treatment, as he is the only witness refusing to either appear voluntarily or comply with a subpoena,” Goodlatte wrote.

It appears Mr. Comey believes he deserves special treatment, as he is the only witness refusing to either appear voluntarily or comply with a subpoena. He needs to appear before the Committees, as all other witnesses have done. Let the facts come to light.

— Bob Goodlatte (@RepGoodlatte) November 29, 2018

Comey has received a subpoena from the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee before. In 2016, after the then-FBI director announced the agency would not recommend seeking charges for Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Comey has also previously testified on Capitol Hill about both the Clinton and Russia investigations.

Trump fired Comey last year on the grounds that Comey had mishandled the Clinton case, with both then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein sending memos expressing agreement with the decision.

ABC News' Mike Levine, Ben Siegel and MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report.

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