FILE - In this May 15, 2007, file photo, then-ormer Deputy Attorney General James Comey waits to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing regarding the fired prosecutors. Comey's appearance June 8, 2017, before the Senate intelligence committee, during which he's expected to describe his encounters with President Donald Trump in the weeks before he was fired as FBI director, is one of the most anticipated congressional hearings in years. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)Susan Walsh (AP)FILE - In this Sept. 10, 1991, file photo, then-Supreme Court Justice Nominee Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia listen during his nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Washington knows how to do big hearings. Dramatic congressional hearings are something of a Washington art form, a rite of democracy carefully crafted for the cameras. Suspense is building as fired FBI Director James Comey prepares to claim the microphone June 8, 2017, in an austere, modern hearing room of the Hart Senate Office Building. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, File)Doug Mills (AP)FILE - In this July 7, 1987, file photo, Lt. Col. Oliver North is sworn in before the Iran Contra Committee prior to his testimony in Washington. Washington knows how to do big hearings. Dramatic congressional hearings are something of a Washington art form, a rite of democracy carefully crafted for the cameras. Suspense is building as fired FBI Director James Comey prepares to claim the microphone June 8, 2017, in an austere, modern hearing room of the Hart Senate Office Building. (AP Photo/Lana Harris, File)Lana Harris (AP)FILE - In this Feb. 10, 1966, file photo, a general views of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Vietnam in Washington. George Kennan, former ambassador to Moscow, is at the witness table. Committee members, from left, are: Sens. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., Frank Carlson, R-Kansas, Bourke Hickenlooper, R-Iowa, Chairman William Fulbright, D-Ark., Wayne Morse, D-Ore., Albert Gore, D-Tenn., Frank Lausche, D-Ohio, Frank Church, D-Idaho, Joseph Clark, Jr., D-Pa., and Claiborne Pell, D-R.I. Washington knows how to do big hearings. Dramatic congressional hearings are something of a Washington art form, a rite of democracy carefully crafted for the cameras. Suspense is building as fired FBI Director James Comey prepares to claim the microphone June 8, 2017, in an austere, modern hearing room of the Hart Senate Office Building. (AP Photo/Henry Griffin, File)Henry Griffin (AP)FILE - In this March 21, 1951, file photo, Frank Costello, gambling figure, a witness at the Senate Committee Investigating Crime hearing at Federal Courthouse in New York, tells the committee of his early enterprises which included the manufacture of Kewpie Dolls and the real estate business. Costello refused to answer questions concerning his net worth. The hearing was in its last day in New York. Washington knows how to do big hearings. Dramatic congressional hearings are something of a Washington art form, a rite of democracy carefully crafted for the cameras. Suspense is building as fired FBI Director James Comey prepares to claim the microphone June 8, 2017, in an austere, modern hearing room of the Hart Senate Office Building. The Associated Press wrote at the time: “Something big, unbelievably big and emphatic, smashed into the homes of millions of Americans last week when television cameras, cold-eyed and relentless, were trained on the Kefauver Crime hearings.” (AP Photo/Pool)APFILE - In this March 9, 1950 file photo, Sen. Joseph McCarthy gestures during a Senate subcommittee hearing in Washington, on McCarthy's charges of communist infiltration of the U.S. State Department. Washington knows how to do big hearings. Dramatic congressional hearings are something of a Washington art form, a rite of democracy carefully crafted for the cameras. Suspense is building as fired FBI Director James Comey prepares to claim the microphone June 8, 2017, in an austere, modern hearing room of the Hart Senate Office Building. (AP Photo/Herbert K. White, File)Herbert K. White (AP)FILE - In this Feb. 2, 1924, file photo, Oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny, left, and his attorney Frank Hogan arrive at the Capitol in Washington, for the Senate Committee investigating the Teapot Dome oil lease scandal. The inquiry related to two parcels of oil-bearing land, Teapot Dome in Wyoming, owned by Harry Sinclair, and Elk Hills in California, owned by Doheny. Dramatic congressional hearings are something of a Washington art form, a rite of democracy carefully crafted for the cameras. Suspense is building as fired FBI Director James Comey prepares to claim the microphone June 8, 2017, in an austere, modern hearing room of the Hart Senate Office Building. (AP Photo)AP
