The tone is dry and unemotional, the language is simple and clear — but make no mistake: The prepared remarks of James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, which the Senate released in advance of his sworn testimony before the Intelligence Committee on Thursday, tell a shocking story.

Starting days after the inauguration and continuing until mid-April, President Trump made multiple attempts to secure Mr. Comey’s personal loyalty and to interfere with the F.B.I.’s investigations into contacts between Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser and the Russian government, as well as a broader inquiry into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russian efforts to swing the 2016 election to Mr. Trump.

After a meeting in the Oval Office in February, the president asked everyone but Mr. Comey to leave. Then, according to Mr. Comey, he asked him to drop his investigation into Michael Flynn, who had just resigned as national security adviser after his lies about contacts with the Russian ambassador became public. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” he said, according to notes Mr. Comey made immediately afterward.

Mr. Comey was so unnerved, he said, he told Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he did not want to be left alone with Mr. Trump again. (Mr. Sessions reportedly would not guarantee that the president would respect that request.)