Washington (CNN) Few reporters know deposed FBI Director James Comey as well -- or have been covering him as long -- as CNN's Eric Lichtblau. Lichtblau, a new CNN'er after spending 15 years at The New York Times, has been reporting on Comey for more than a decade -- all the way back to the infamous 2004 hospital confrontation between Comey and then Bush chief of staff Andy Card and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales.

I reached out to Eric to get some perspective on what Comey will do next, the likelihood he told President Donald Trump he wasn't under investigation and who will succeed Comey at the FBI. Our conversation, conducted via email and lightly edited for flow, is below.

Cillizza: The big question is when/whether Comey will testify before Congress about his meetings and interactions with Trump -- among other things. What's your read on that?

Lichtblau: He'll almost certainly testify, and it should be one for the history books: Newly exiled FBI director pitted against the president who fired him. Add backdrop of Russian election influence. Cue the grainy Watergate photos of Sam Ervin and Howard Baker. And remember Comey has always had quite a flair for drama, as we saw exactly 10 years ago when he testified in the Senate about his famous hospital-room showdown with George W. Bush's White House aides at John Ashcroft's bedside. We could get a hearing in the next few weeks, if not sooner, and my guess is that Comey will insist it happen in public, not behind closed doors.

Cillizza: Knowing what you know of Comey, what do you think the likelihood is that he told Trump, on three separate occasions, that the President was not under investigation?

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