Breaking: Comey tells lawmakers Trump wanted him to ‘ask’ to keep his job

In prepared testimony for his Senate appearance, former FBI chief James Comey suggests that he felt President Donald Trump pressured him to shelf the agencies investigation into ex-national security advisory Michael Flynn.

In the testimony, Comey tells lawmakers that he felt the president gave him an ultimatum when the two met at the White House on Jan. 27.

From the testimony:

The President began by asking me whether I wanted to stay on as FBI Director, which I found strange because he had already told me twice in earlier conversations that he hoped I would stay, and I had assured him that I intended to. He said that lots of people wanted my job and, given the abuse I had taken during the previous year, he would understand if I wanted to walk away.

My instincts told me that the one-on-one setting, and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position, meant the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship. That concerned me greatly, given the FBI’s traditionally independent status in the executive branch.

I replied that I loved my work and intended to stay and serve out my tenyear term as Director. And then, because the set-up made me uneasy, I added that I was not “reliable” in the way politicians use that word, but he could always count on me to tell him the truth. I added that I was not on anybody’s side politically and could not be counted on in the traditional political sense, a stance I said was in his best interest as the President.

Comey claims the president’s response was, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”

Here is the former FBI official’s full statement:

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