WASHINGTON (AP) - Former FBI Director James Comey will testify President Donald Trump sought his "loyalty" and asked what could be done to "lift the cloud" of investigation shadowing his White House, according to prepared remarks released ahead of his appearance today on Capitol Hill.
Comey will also tell lawmakers he informed Trump he was not personally under investigation, validating the president's previous claims he was not the target of the probe into his campaign's possible ties to Russia. Comey will say the FBI and Justice Department were reluctant to state publicly "because it would create a duty to correct, should that change."
Comey's testimony will be his first public comments since Trump abruptly fired him on May 9. The seven-page remarks released Wednesday reveal in dramatic detail, and with a writer's flair, Comey's uneasiness with Trump, who he believed was disregarding the FBI's traditional independence from the White House.
Until his firing, Comey oversaw the federal investigation into possible collusion between Trump's associates and Russia. Trump's abrupt firing of Comey outraged Democrats, who believe he was improperly trying to halt the probe.
The former director's testimony is based on written memos of his interactions with Trump, some of which he said he shared with senior FBI leadership. Comey describes at length a Feb. 14 meeting in the Oval Office in which he believed Trump asked him to drop any investigation of fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.
"He then said, 'I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go,'" Comey said, according to the prepared remarks. "I replied only that 'he is a good guy.'"
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she was unsure if the president had reviewed Comey's testimony. Asked whether the president stood by earlier assertions he had neither sought Comey's loyalty nor asked for the Flynn investigation to be dropped, she said: "I can't imagine the president not standing by his own statement."
Sanders referred specific questions to Trump's outside counsel, Marc Kasowitz, who did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Comey's testimony was released by the Senate intelligence committee hours after lawmakers sparred with top intelligence chiefs who refused to answer the panel's questions about conversations they had with Trump regarding the Russia probe.
Intelligence committee members wanted to know about news reports claiming Trump had asked Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Adm. Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, to publicly state that there was no evidence of collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Among the encounters Comey describes is a Jan. 27 dinner at the White House he viewed as an attempt by the president to "create some sort of patronage relationship."
According to Comey, Trump asked if he wanted to remain as FBI director and declared: "I need loyalty. I expect loyalty." Comey says he replied he could offer his honesty, and when Trump said he wanted "honest loyalty," Comey paused and said, "You will get that from me."