D.C. Briefs

The FBI agent who was removed from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election for sending anti-Trump texts intends to testify before the House Judiciary Committee and any other congressional committee that asks, his attorney said in a letter made public Sunday. Peter Strzok, who was singled out in a recent Justice Department inspector general report for the politically charged messages, is willing to testify without immunity, and he would not invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, his attorney, Aitan Goelman, told the Washington Post on Sunday. Strzok has become a special target of President Donald Trump, who has used the texts to question the Russia investigation. Goelman said Strzok "wants the chance to clear his name and tell his story."

Rudy Giuliani said that the president might pardon his jailed, onetime campaign chairman and others ensnared in the Russia investigation once Special Counsel Robert Mueller's work wraps up, if he believed they were treated "unfairly." Until then, consideration of clemency is unnecessary, Giuliani said, as the White House presses to bring the yearlong investigation to an end. Giuliani denied that Trump was trying to send a message to Paul Manafort, who was the 2016 chairman for nearly five months, or others to refrain from cooperating with prosecutors.

Manafort is spending at least the next three months awaiting trial at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Virginia. He was arrested Friday after a federal judge revoked his pretrial release conditions pending trial in Washington. Often federal prisoners are housed in the District of Columbia or Alexandria, Va. Instead, Manafort was taken to Northern Neck, about 90 miles southeast. Jail records show he was booked into the jail's "VIP" section at 8:22 p.m. Friday. The roster indicates more than 600 inmates are in custody there.