Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump will not try to block fired FBI Director James Comey from testifying before Congress, opting not to invoke executive privilege, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday at the White House briefing.

"The President's power to assert executive privilege is well-established. However, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate intelligence committee, President Trump will not assert executive privilege regarding James Comey's scheduled testimony," said a statement issued by the White House.

The announcement followed days of speculation over whether Trump would try to prevent Comey, who is expected to reveal details about his conversations with the President, from testifying.

Comey's testimony is expected to be explosive and will be closely watched throughout Washington, where the focus on Russia's involvement in the 2016 campaign, the country's connections to Trump associates and aides -- and an alleged attempt by Trump to use Comey to quash an investigation -- is growing stronger.

Trump asked Comey during a meeting to end the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to source familiar with the matter. Comey's conversations and meetings with Trump were memorialized in memos written by the former FBI director . Senators plan to ask Comey about those memos on Thursday.

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