Comey to testify Trump told him: 'I expect loyalty'

The president demands loyalty. Lawmakers hungry for answers and frustrated by the reticence of national security executives to provide them.

"The President is pleased that Mr. Comey has finally publicly confirmed his private reports that the President was not under investigation in any Russian Federation probe", Trump's lawyer Marc Kasowitz said in a statement.

The statement issued Wednesday by former FBI Director James Comey detailing repeated efforts by President Trump to interfere with the FBI investigation into alleged connections between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government has touched off a new and more explosive stage in the political crisis of the Trump administration and the U.S. ruling elite as a whole.

"He is a good guy", Comey quoted Trump as telling him on February 14 as they sat alone together in the Oval Office, in prepared testimony for Thursday's Senate hearing.

Wall Street shares ticked up on Wednesday, despite sharp decline in energy prices, after written testimony from Comey did not add major revelations about an investigation into Russian meddling with last year's US presidential election. Comey reassured Trump, for the third time, that he was not personally a target of the investigation, and Trump repeated a request that the FBI director make that known publicly.

The White House initially said Trump fired Comey on the recommendation of the Justice Department, citing as justification a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that criticized Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

"If the hearing does not produce clear-cut evidences of obstruction of justice, uncertainties will remain but for market the issue will likely be put on a back burner", said Hiroko Iwaki, senior fixed income strategist at Mizuho Securities.

Senator Susan Collins, a Republican member of the panel, said earlier this week: "I want to know more also about the president's interactions with Mr. Comey with regard to the investigation into Michael Flynn".

The former Federal Bureau of Investigation director also claims that after that meeting, he approached Attorney General Jeff Sessions with an extraordinary request: "I took the opportunity to implore the attorney general to prevent any future direct communication between the president and me".

The January 27 meeting, a one-on-one dinner initiated by Trump, had been widely reported before, based on a leak to the media of Comey's memorandum of the discussion written soon afterward. Trump allegedly later said again, "I need loyalty", to which Comey replied, "You will always get honesty from me". Trump says he fired Flynn for misleading the vice president about his contact with the Russians but nonetheless calls Flynn a "good guy" and urges Comey to "let this go".

And just a week before he was sacked, Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he made a decision to publicly announce his findings in the Clinton email investigation after watching Bill Clinton board a plane with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Nine times, Comey said.

Their three one-on-one meetings are a study in the arts of implied pressure, passive-aggressive resistance, awkward silences and conversation exit strategies.

The conversation is odd from the start: Trump asks whether Comey wants to keep his job even though the Federal Bureau of Investigation director had twice before told Trump he wanted to stay on. "A few moments later, the president said, 'I need loyalty, I expect loyalty'". They've also questioned why Comey did not raise his concerns about Trump publicly or resign.

This is stated more bureaucratically in Comey's testimony, but that was essentially the position.

Comey, who is used to not answering lawmakers' questions about ongoing investigations, is not likely to say anything Thursday that could interfere with, or undercut, the ongoing federal investigation into Russian Federation ties.

In the wake of the firing, the Justice Department named an special prosecutor, former FBI director Robert Mueller, to lead the government's investigation.

Watch for a battle between Democrats and Republicans over how to characterize Trump's request of Comey-as well as Trump's other requests, like his repeatedly asking Comey for his loyalty.

"One thing you don't ever hear about him is (that) people don't think he tells the truth".