Fired FBI chief Comey testifies on Trump pressure, Russia probe

Fired FBI director James Comey withheld judgment Thursday on whether President Donald Trump requests that he drop an investigation into his former national security advisor amounted to obstruction of justice.

"I don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct,” he said, speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a packed hearing room on Capitol Hill.

“I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning. But that's a conclusion I'm sure the special counsel will work towards to find out the intention and whether that's an offense," he added, referring to the independent prosecutor placed in charge of the FBI's Russia probe.

Despite Trump's request that he drop the probe into former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s ties with Russia, Comey said no one in the administration asked him to drop the FBI's overall investigation into whether anyone in the Trump campaign collaborated with a Russian bid to interfere in the 2016 election.

But he said he took "as direction" the president's words on the Flynn probe when he said "I hope you can let it go."

"He's the president of the United States, with me alone, saying 'I hope this' - I took it as this is what he wants me to do."

On Wednesday Comey detailed in a statement Trump's persistent pressure for him to show loyalty and drop a probe into former national security advisor Michael Flynn's Russia links.

Democrats are intent on determining whether Trump's actions amounted to obstruction of justice, while Republicans have focussed on Comey's admission that he assured the president on more than one occasion he was not a target of the FBI's investigation.

Trump abruptly fired Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on May 9, admitting later that the Russia probe was on his mind at the time.

Whether Trump watched the televised testimony was unclear, but White House aides reportedly tried to keep him busy and away from Twitter.

They will "not divert us from this righteous cause, to try and stop all of you," Trump told a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in the US capital not long after Comey's testimony ended.

Without referring to Comey directly, Trump vowed to fight his enemies and knock back attempts to derail his presidency.

"We know how to fight better than anybody, and we never, ever will give up. We don't give up and we are winners and we are going to fight and win and we will have an unbelievable future."

Comey describes discomfort

In his written statement, Comey described his mounting discomfort in the weeks leading up to his dismissal as Trump pulled him aside in one-on-one encounters and in phone calls to press him on the probe into Trump campaign associates and possible collusion with a Russian effort to tilt the 2016 vote in the Republican's favor.

At a private White House dinner on January 27, just days after the Republican billionaire took office, Comey said Trump appeared to want to "create some sort of patronage relationship" with him.

"The president said, 'I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.' I didn't move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed," Comey said.

In an Oval Office tete-a-tete the following month Comey said Trump pressed him to drop the FBI investigation into Flynn, who had been fired for lying to the vice president about his unreported conversations with the Russian ambassador.

'The president said, 'I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.' I didn't move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed'

- James Comey, former FBI chief

Comey did not say whether he thought the president's actions amounted to obstruction of justice, a serious crime that could lead to impeachment. 

But he called Trump's approaches "very concerning, given the FBI's role as an independent investigative agency."

He also described trying to insulate himself and the FBI from political pressure in the weeks before Trump fired him, as the president complained about the Russian probe and labeled it "fake news."

"This is not how a President of the United States behaves," Senator Mark Warner said in his opening remarks, released Thursday hours before the hearing. 

"Regardless of the outcome of our investigation into those Russia links, Director Comey's firing and his testimony raise separate and troubling questions that we must get to the bottom of."

Analysts said Comey, an intensely by-the-book law enforcer whose handling of a separate investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton last year may have cost her the presidential election, was studiously avoiding accusing the president of a crime.

White House tries to spin testimony

But Comey was not the only one who reportedly leaned on by Trump. The Washington Post reported that the president also approached Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency chief Mike Rogers about the Flynn probe.

Both Coats and Rogers, testifying Wednesday, said they never felt "pressure" to intervene in the investigation. 

'The president feels completely and totally vindicated. He is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda'

- Marc Kasowitz, personal lawyer for Donald Trump

But neither denied the Post stories, and dodged questions about whether Trump had asked them to intervene.

The White House has sought to put a positive spin on Comeys' testimony.

"The president feels completely and totally vindicated. He is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda," said Marc Kasowitz, hired by Trump as his personal lawyer to deal with issues linked to the Russia investigation, after the statement was released.

But Republicans were uneasy.

Asked if Trump had acted appropriately, Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr said: "I don't think that from what I've read there's anything of wrongdoing, but I will match that with his (Comey's) verbal testimony, and weigh it against the evidence of our investigation to date."