WASHINGTON — Former FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday to address his interactions with President Donald Trump and an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The testimony, which lasted approximately three hours, was a highly-anticipated meeting before the committee following Comey’s firing by Trump in May.

The following is a breakdown of his testimony.

Why was the Comey hearing needed?

Comey was invited to testify to give clarification to his interactions with the president and the ongoing investigations into the Russian officials influencing the most recent presidential election and future elections. The investigation involved several officials close to the Trump administration that reportedly had interaction with Russia, most notably with Flynn.

Repeatedly, Comey testified that Trump was not being investigated in relation to the Flynn-Russian case; however, his testimony involved several key elements about Trump asking for Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn because Flynn was “a good guy.”

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the president’s repeated talks to Comey about dropping the investigation was inappropriate but that the hearing was not about “how a president of the United States behaves.” The hearing, however, detailed many troubling interactions between the president and Comey.

Why was Comey fired?

Comey testified that he is unsure the exact cause of his firing on May 9 but that after listening to the president’s explanation, it appeared that he was fired for not dropping the investigation into Russia being related to key officials in the Trump administration. Comey said he planned to serve his full 10-year term, but was “concerned” about the way he was fired.

Comey said he believes he was fired “to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted.” He added that the Trump administration spread “lies, plain and simple” about him and the FBI and that if FBI agents knew the president had asked him to drop the case, there would have been a “real chilling effect” on their work.

He added that law enforcement leaders are not “supposed to be peeking out to see whether your patron is pleased or not with what you’re doing.”

Why did Comey keep memos?

Following several interactions with the president, including a dinner and private meeting in the Oval Office, Comey said he was concerned the president “might lie about the nature of our meeting.” He said he was concerned with Trump’s behavior and that he felt he needed to “write it down in a very detailed way.”

In one meeting, Trump dismissed all officials from the Oval Office, including the attorney general, to talk to Comey privately. Comey said he was “stunned” by the president isolating him to discuss an ongoing investigation. As a result, he had a “gut feeling” that he needed to document their interaction.

“Why did he kick everybody out of the Oval Office?” Comey questioned. “That, to me as an investigator, is a very significant fact.”

Comey says he was fired because of Russia investigation

Former FBI Director James Comey asserted Thursday that President Donald Trump fired him to interfere with his investigation of Russia's role in the 2016 election and its ties to the Trump campaign.

Comey said he felt the president “was looking to get something” in return so that Comey could keep his job. That promise was that Comey would go easy on Flynn or drop the investigation entirely. Comey said he never felt the need to take notes following his interactions with former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

After keeping several memos, Comey said he shared one of the private memos with a friend in an effort to get the information to the media and out to the public. He said the release of information in the memo was intended to prompt a special counsel to the case. Comey did, however, keep several classified memos that have not been released but go to the nature of the investigation.

Comey said, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” of the conversations the two held privately. He added that he hoped the Trump administration would “release all the tapes” if there were any.

Did Trump obstruct justice?

With Trump asking for the Flynn case to be dropped, the question of whether Trump obstructed justice was in question. Comey declined to outwardly say that Trump had obstructed justice, but that the request was “very disturbing.” He said he did not take Trump’s request as an order, but “as a direction.”

“I don’t think it’s for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct,” he said. “I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning.”

Comey added that it would be special counsel Robert Mueller’s job to determine whether Trump obstructed justice in his request to drop the Flynn investigation. Should it be found that Trump did attempt to obstruct justice, it could lay the groundwork to impeachment proceedings for the president.

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