WASHINGTON — The House intelligence committee said Wednesday it is issuing subpoenas for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, as well as their businesses, as part of its investigation into Russian activities during last year’s election.
In addition to those four subpoenas, the committee has issued three others — to the National Security Agency, the FBI, and the CIA — for information about requests that government officials made to ‘‘unmask’’ the identities of US individuals named in classified intelligence reports, according to a congressional aide.
The subpoenas were announced as the special counsel overseeing the government’s probe into possible Trump campaign ties to Russia has approved former FBI Director James Comey to testify before the Senate intelligence committee, said a Comey associate.
At a Wednesday briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer said inquiries about the Russia investigation must be directed to Marc Kasowitz, another of Trump’s personal attorneys. It marked the first time the White House had officially acknowledged that outside counsel had been retained. Calls and e-mails to Kasowitz’s New York firm were not immediately returned.
The Comey associate wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the testimony and spoke on condition of anonymity. The associate did say that Robert Mueller, whom the Justice Department appointed this month to lead the government’s inquiry, is allowing Comey to make certain statements.
Lawmakers are likely to ask Comey about his interactions with Trump as the bureau pursued its investigation into his campaign’s contacts.
Associates have said Comey wrote memos describing certain interactions with Trump that gave him pause in the months after the election, including details of a dinner in which he claimed the president asked him to pledge his loyalty, and a request to shut down the investigation of Flynn.
Mueller’s separate probe could look at the circumstances surrounding Comey’s firing.
Congress is currently out of session. It resumes next Tuesday. No date for Comey’s testimony has been set.
Subpoenas were approved Wednesday for Flynn and his company, Flynn Intel Group, and Cohen and his firm, Michael D. Cohen & Associates.
The subpoenas sent to government agencies were related to Trump’s complaints that Obama administration officials had asked, for political reasons, to be told the names of Trump associates documented in intelligence reports. Officials only ‘‘unmask’’ the identities of Americans for certain reasons — for example, if the name of a person is needed to understand the intelligence being provided.
Another senior committee aide said any subpoenas related to the unmasking would have been sent by committee Chairman Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California, who recused himself from the Russia probe after being criticized for being too close to the White House. The aide said the action would have been taken without agreement from Democrats on the committee.
