CORRECTION AND UPDATE: This article was published before Comey released his prepared opening statement. The article and headline have been corrected to reflect that Comey does not directly dispute that Trump was told multiple times he was not under investigation in his prepared testimony released after this story was published.



In his much-anticipated congressional testimony on Thursday, fired FBI Director James Comey is not likely to offer his conclusion about whether the President obstructed justice regarding the agency's Russia investigation, according to a source with knowledge of Comey's testimony.

Rather, this source says, Comey plans to present himself as a "fact witness" by simply describing the interactions with the President on multiple occasions that made him uneasy enough to memorialize their conversations. He "will leave the legal analysis for others," a source tells CNN.

While Comey is anxious to recount his version of his conversations with the President, he also appears likely to sidestep questions about how he felt about Trump's comment -- for instance, whether he felt pressured to drop the investigation or whether he thought they amounted to obstruction, another source said.

An earlier version of this story said that Comey would dispute Trump's interpretation of their conversations. But based on his prepared remarks, Comey outlines three conversations with the President in which he told Trump he was not personally under investigation.



Comey believes that his own feelings about the President's comments are largely "irrelevant," the source said, and that his account of what happened is the central issue. What matters in considering possible obstruction of justice, this source added, is the President's intent, not how Comey felt about it.

Read More