Comey to Congress: President Trump told him ‘I need loyalty’

WASHINGTON — Former FBI Director James Comey will testify that 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 on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

Comey will also tell lawmakers that he informed Trump that he was not personally under investigation, validating the president’s previous claims that he was not the target of the probe into his campaign’s possible ties to Russia. Comey will say that the FBI and Justice Department were reluctant to state that 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 a probe that has hung over his presidency since his first day in office.

The former director’s testimony is based on written memos of his interactions with Trump, some of which he says 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.