The problem for Trump is that Comey is an experienced public servant with a reputation for rectitude, while Trump is a serial prevaricator whose campaign is now being investigated not only by two congressional committees but by a special counsel whose mandate could be expanded to include the circumstances of Comey's dismissal. But he declined to offer an opinion on whether it met such a threshold. Or did Trump go all the way to illegal behavior by directing Comey to tamper with a criminal investigation?
That led to "a curious scene of a former director leaking material against the president after the president repeatedly asked him to crack down on leakers".
Still, there's no doubt the veteran lawman made for a challenging adversary. "I took it as, 'This is what he wants me to do.' I didn't obey that, but that's the way I took it", Comey said in an exchange with Idaho Republican Sen. That is a big deal.
The hearing was Mr Comey's first public appearance since his sudden May 9 firing and it brought Washington and other parts of the country to a standstill as Americans sat glued to their screens, harkening back to the Watergate congressional hearings that held the nation rapt four decades earlier.
Republicans mindful of the gravity of the moment worked feverishly to lessen any damage from the hearing. Even Comey's boss, the attorney general, was kicked out.
Comey was sacked on May 9, when Trump expressed his deep frustration with the continuing probe into whether members of his presidential election campaign had tied up with Russian hackers against the billionaire tycoon's rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Warner said that the investigation "is not about re-litigating the election".
"You would think a guy like Comey" would know the difference between "hoping and telling", Donald Trump Jr. said in a Tweet.
"I don't know. That's Bob Mueller's job to sort that out", Comey replied.
Rubio, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, questioned that decision from Comey, saying that the overall Russian Federation investigation was full of leaks from the news media, and that Comey's decision not to disclose that information implied to the American people that the president was potentially part of the investigation.
Liberal Democrat spokesman says 'very difficult' to join coalition
He called on May to delay the start of negotiations, urging her to "consider her future, then for once, consider her country's". The Lib Dem did increase their tally of Commons seats from nine to 14.
In a startling disclosure, Comey revealed that after his firing he actually tried to spur the special counsel's appointment by giving a damning memo he had written about a meeting with Trump to a friend to release to the media.
"I have to say, the chronology is pretty bad for him", Georgetown University law professor Julie O'Sullivan said of Trump.
"The hearing raised serious questions about Attorney General Sessions that he and the Justice Department must answer immediately", Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech shortly after the hearing with Comey ended.
"I really haven't seen it", Sen. "I knew there might come a day when I might need a record of what happened not only to defend myself but to protect the Federal Bureau of Investigation". Trump now has a private attorney, Marc Kasowitz, who issued a denial Thursday, saying the president "never sought to impede" the Russian Federation inquiry and never directed or suggested that Comey stop investigating anyone. Instead, Kasowitz pushed back and the president remained conspicuously silent on Twitter during the hearing despite expectations he might respond. "President, this is wrong, '?" "I was so stunned by the conversation I just took it in". "I can definitively say the president is not a liar", she said.
The Russian government hacked the computers of the Democratic National Committee, leaked the information they stole and "was behind the cyber intrusion" of American voter files, among much more.
Under questioning, Comey admitted he asked a friend to share one of his memos with a reporter, in the hopes of forcing the appointment of a special counsel to lead the Russian Federation investigation.
"There should be no fuzz on this".
The way Comey described it, when the president gets you alone in the Oval Office, looks you in the eye and expresses his wishes, you understand you're being given an order.
Trump has begrudgingly accepted that assessment.
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