Arduino Micro (also perhaps Leonardo) rx/tx and USB

I have an Arduino Micro, which is basically a tiny Arduino Leonardo designed for insertion in a breadboard. This board comes with rx and tx, though, looking at the schematic diagram, the USB is connected to unrelated pins on the Atmega32. My question is: can those rx/tx pins be used as digital input and output as they can be on a more conventional Arduino? And would this have any impact on loading sketches or communicating via USB serial? I've looked for the answer to this question using numerous Google searches, and it never comes up.

The tx/rx pins are not used for USB serial - that's done directly over USB.

You can use them freely as digital inputs/outputs, or to communicate with device over serial, without interfering with USB communication.

Hi DrAzzy, I have a couple of Arduino Micros myself and seem to remember having difficulties using outputs 0 and 1. Is it neccessary to "release" these pins in some way before you can use then as digital i/o? For example putting Serial1.end() or something in startup()?

Thanks!

Paul