In a credibility contest with Trump, James Comey is the obvious victor

We will carry the former FBI Director's testimony before the Senate Intelligence committee on Thursday on KWCH 12.

Comey said he did so after Trump suggested in a tweet that their conversations may have been recorded.

Comey said in his statement that in a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office on Feb.14, Trump asked him to drop an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn that is part of a wider probe into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

What's more, the inner circle of the administration felt that Republicans "were not doing enough to push back against" the claims of obstruction of justice that are being leveled against Trump, claims that are behind a current campaign to level impeachment charges against him.

"I didn't say that", Trump said.

He further denied ever asking Comey for his "loyalty", contradicting Comey's detailed sworn testimony about a private dinner the two men had in the White House.

"If Mueller investigates whether Trump's interactions with Comey - including firing him - constitute obstruction of justice then Rosenstein would have to recuse himself from that matter", she said.

The White House has seized on Comey's confirmation that Trump personally was not under investigation over his ties to Russian Federation to declare a victory of sorts.

He said that when President Trump told him he hoped he would terminate an investigation into Mr Flynn, he interpreted that as a directive. Pressed on the issue, he said the media would be "disappointed" when he revealed the answer.

A defiant President Donald Trump said Friday he was willing to testify under oath about his conversations with James Comey, further fueling the swirling controversy ignited by the fired Federal Bureau of Investigation director's bombshell testimony before the Senate on Thursday.

The committee is seeking the materials by June 23.

With trademark flair, Comey told the committee, "Lordy, I hope there are tapes" of his conversations with Trump.

Mr Comey testified that he'd given a memo including details about a conversation with President Donald Trump to a friend, who was later identified as law professor Daniel Richman.

Standing with the president of Romania, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partner, Trump at last confirmed his commitment to the alliance's mutual defense pact, Article 5, uttering words he deliberately did not say when he spoke at NATO's gathering in Belgium last month.

He also accused Qatar, a key USA military partner, of funding terrorism "at a very high level", and said solving the problem in the tiny Persian Gulf nation could be "the beginning of the end of terrorism".

Trump was expected to face journalists at the White House later Friday in a joint news conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

While Trump's staunchest supporters have tried to paint Comey's testimony as vindication for the president, few Republicans who don't work for Trump stepped in to defend the president's version of his contacts with Comey.

Bob Inglis, a Republican former congressman who voted to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998, suggested Trump might be in particularly hot water.

He also seized on Comey's revelation that he had directed a friend to release contents of memos he'd written documenting his conversations with the president to a reporter.