James Comey Releases Opening Statements Before Today’s Testimony (Transcript/Video/Polls)

When former FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, the hearing will be a must-see-TV event carried live by every broadcast network and cable news channel.  But such a massive spotlight casts a wide beam, and the senators on the panel, who will pose questions and offer their own views of the unfolding controversy, could also make star turns.

The Latest on developments involving fired FBI Director James Comey (all times local): 7:30 a.m.

The ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee says former FBI director James Comey’s account of his conversations with the president about the Russia investigation are “disturbing.” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia will emphasize at Thursday’s committee hearing that the American people need to realize that what happened was that a president asked an FBI director to drop an ongoing investigation into a former national security adviser.

Fired FBI Director James Comey comes before Congress on Thursday with the power to plunge Donald Trump’s presidency even deeper into crisis. Trump ousted Comey on May 9, amid an investigation into whether the president’s associates aided a Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. And on Wednesday, Comey described for the first time a series of uncomfortable interactions — in the months before his firing — in which Trump nudged Comey to publicly absolve him of any connection to the Russia probe. According to Comey’s prepared testimony, the president also demanded loyalty and asked Trump to go easy on Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, who is under FBI investigation.

For all the unsavory details in the James Comey account of the president’s behavior, tonight the White House and some top Republicans see big vindication for Trump. When all is said and done, Comey has now publicly gone on record with what Trump always wanted him to say but which he wouldn’t or couldn’t for the past four months -– resolving the core irritant for Trump since he’s taken office — declaring that he told Trump he’s not personally under investigation by the FBI. “The President feels completely and totally vindicated,” his attorney Marc Kasowitz declared tonight.

Former FBI Director James Comey will tell Congress on Thursday that President Donald Trump pressed him repeatedly to halt a probe into his ex-national security adviser’s ties with Russia and to declare publicly that Trump himself was not under investigation.

Comey’s testimony in the most widely anticipated congressional hearing in years will put at center stage a high-stakes clash between two men with vastly different personas.