The former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), James Comey, told a U.S. Senate panel on Thursday that he took President Donald Trump's remarks about letting former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn off the hook in an investigation as an inappropriate direction and chose to keep a record of it.
Under question by the bipartisan committee - one of four congressional committees examining Russian interference in the election - Mr Comey said he believed that his handling of the Russian investigation into interference in the 2016 election was the reason he was sacked by Mr Trump.
Flynn was sacked in February for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
It came a day after Comey said in written testimony to the Senate that private conversations with Trump made him deeply uneasy and concerned about the blurring of boundaries between the White House and a law enforcement agency that prides itself on independence. Comey said at the hearing that Trump asked him to "let it go". He said in his interactions with two former Presidents, he did not feel the need to record it. But he told the committee he could not disclose that information in a public session.
Mr. Comey explained that "the circumstances, the subject matter and the person I was interacting with" were factors and also that he was alone with the president-elect discussing weighty matters.
"As long as I'm president, nobody is going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what is in your heart", he said.
Similarly he would not be drawn on further details about the FBI investigation into former national security advisor Mike Flynn, save to say it was a "criminal" investigation.
"So it confused me when I saw on television the president saying that he actually fired me because of the Russian Federation investigation", Comey said.
James Comey was sacked by President Donald Trump on May 9 and testified in front of the Senate select committee today.
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The president did not make specific reference to Comey.
Later, in a startling disclosure, Comey revealed that after his firing he had tried to spur the appointment of a special counsel by giving one of his memos about Trump to a friend of his to leak to the press.
Comey outlined his conversations with Trump, after which he took memos, in a seven-page opening statement released Wednesday.
And there was a question about why, if Comey believed the president's words to be improper (possibly illegal), he didn't report this to higher authority.
The White House angrily denounced that charge.
"I woke up in the middle of the night Monday [thinking] that there might be corroboration for our conversation", Comey testified.
Mr. Trump tweeted after firing Comey last month that the ex-FBI chief "better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
Mr Comey, who was sacked by Mr Trump on May 9th, said that his administration "chose to defame me and more importantly the Federal Bureau of Investigation by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led. I mean, obviously, I don't think that is".
Comey also told Harris that he could only rely on public statements about Sessions' recusal because the Justice Department did not issue any written notice or memorandum describing the process that he would follow to stay away from the investigation.
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