The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said today that testimony by fired FBI Director James Comey showed President Donald Trump appeared to threaten his job and asked him to drop an investigation into a senior aide, violating clear guidelines designed to prevent political interference into FBI probes.
"The testimony that Mr Comey has submitted for today’s hearing is disturbing," Mark Warner will say in his opening statement at a committee hearing, according to excerpts obtained by Reuters.
Former FBI Director James Comey will tell Congress today that Trump repeatedly urged him to halt a probe into his former national security adviser's ties to Russia and to declare publicly that Trump himself was not being investigated.
Comey's testimony in the most widely anticipated congressional hearing in years will put the spotlight on whether Trump's comments about the Russia investigation were an attempt to obstruct the FBI probe that has dogged his 5-month-old presidency.
The outcome of Comey's testimony could have significant repercussions for Trump's 139-day-old presidency as special counsel Robert Mueller and multiple congressional committees investigate whether Trump's campaign team colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The White House and Russia deny any collusion has occurred.
In written testimony released by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, Comey quoted Trump as telling him the Russia investigation was a "cloud" that impaired his ability to operate as president.
[Comey] is also unlikely to reveal new details of the Russia investigation.
Trump fired the FBI chief on May 9, setting off a political fire storm, and he has since called Comey a "showboat" and a "grandstander."
Democrats and some Republicans on the committee will use the hearing on Thursday to press for further details of any attempts by Trump to blunt the Russia investigation.
Despite the high drama, Comey is not expected to drop any major new bombshells, or directly accuse Trump of trying to obstruct justice by asking him to halt the FBI probe of Flynn.
He is also unlikely to reveal new details of the Russia investigation. US law enforcement officials said Comey had discussed his testimony with Mueller's investigative team to ensure it did not interfere with the special counsel's probe.
"The one thing you know he's not going to do, you know he's not going to reach a conclusion (on the legality of Trump's actions) and he's not going to talk about the underlying investigation," said Stephen Ryan, a former federal prosecutor and congressional investigator now at the McDermott, Will & Emery law firm.
Still, Ryan said the testimony, and senators' questions, would be historic.
The closest comparison, he said, was the appearance 44 years ago of President Richard Nixon's White House counsel John Dean, who, after being fired by Nixon, gave damning testimony in 1973 to the Senate Watergate Committee.