Comey’s written statement offered the strongest portrayal yet of a president trying to impede an investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.

Previewed in written testimony that he will deliver in person during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday, the former top federal investigator’s on-the-record account injects a sense of undeniable realism to a story that until now has largely emerged through a drip-drip-drip of anonymous leaks that the president has dismissed as “fake.”

WASHINGTON — Former FBI director James Comey’s account of President Trump trying, over and over, to stop a probe of his campaign turns what Trump called a “cloud” over his presidency into a full-blown thunderstorm.


Reminiscent of the Nixon tapes, Comey offers vivid detail of how the president asked him for his loyalty, requested that he drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and, in a phone call, offered a denial.

“He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia,” Comey wrote in testimony.

They spoke nine times before Trump fired him, Comey writes, providing cinematic detail about the grandfather clock in the Oval Office, the two Navy stewards serving them dinner in the Green Room, and the awkward silence when Trump looked across the table and told him: “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”

After their meetings, Comey said, he went to his laptop to quickly document the conversations — something he says he had not felt compelled to do after his two private meetings with President Barack Obama.

Trump’s White House team appeared to be bracing for the public testimony of the man Trump has dismissed as a “showboat.’’ They have signaled that Trump may even tweet during Comey’s testimony on Thursday. The president, who is known for his refusal to back down from a fight, has a speech scheduled for the same day, possibly giving him an opportunity to rebut Comey’s account.


The spectacle of a White House in a full-blown political crisis, which could develop into a legal crisis, has rocked this staid city, known as a place of suits, statues, and steakhouses.

The drama this week unspooled like a political thriller, and no one can turn away. Bars are opening early, tuning televisions that normally broadcast ESPN to CSPAN.

Senate hallways are crammed with reporters, and tourists are baffled trying to keep up with the ticker tape of news developments.

In one hour it’s revealed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered to resign over tension because he recused himself from the Russia investigation. In the next hour, it’s reported that Trump attempted to enlist a top intelligence official to pressure the FBI to halt a line of inquiry.

Almost lost in the shuffle Wednesday was that Trump named a new FBI director.

“It certainly is an interesting town in which we exist,” Senator John McCain declared during a committee hearing on Wednesday, remarking on the Senate’s frustrations as it tries to determine the facts about Russia’s attempts to influence the election and the Trump campaign’s ties to a country that is often an antagonist.

A scandal that has drawn comparisons to Watergate now has critics of Trump saying that it exceeds that benchmark for drama and potential wrongdoing.

“Watergate pales, really in my view, compared to what we’re confronting now,’’ said James Clapper, director of national intelligence until Trump took office in January, during a speech Wednesday in Australia.


‘‘I am very concerned about the assault on our institutions coming from both an external source — read Russia — and an internal source — the president himself,’’ said Clapper, who was appointed by Obama.

Benjamin Wittes, a friend of Comey and legal commentator at the Brookings Institution, wrote on Wednesday that Comey’s testimony is “the most shocking single document compiled about the official conduct of the public duties of any president since the release of the Watergate tapes.”

The explosive testimony that Comey is expected to offer on Thursday is a dramatic departure from the scene that unfolded on Wednesday, when top intelligence officials repeatedly declined to discuss any of their conversations with Trump. Two of those officials — Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, and Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence — have reportedly been asked by Trump to deny any evidence of collusion with Russia during the election.

“I’m not going to discuss the specifics of any conversations with the president of the United States,” Rogers said.

Coats also would not respond to a Washington Post report that Trump asked him to intervene and persuade Comey to back off his probe of Flynn.

“I don’t believe it’s appropriate for me to address that in a public session,’’ Coats said.

Senator Angus King, the independent from Maine, grew particularly frustrated.


“Why are you not answering our questions?” he asked.

“Because I feel it’s inappropriate, senator,” Rogers responded.

“What you feel isn’t relevant, admiral,” King said.

Rogers said he didn’t mean his lack of responsiveness “in a contentious way.”

“Well, I do mean it in a contentious way,” King said. “I don’t understand why you’re not answering our questions.”

The line of inquiry is a key one that could establish more widespread efforts by Trump to intervene and stop the FBI investigation — which could be reviewed as potential evidence of obstruction of justice by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. The intelligence officials were not citing executive privilege — a way in which the White House can prevent top officials from testifying — and at one point King demanded to know the legal basis for their unwillingness to answer.

“I’m not sure I have a legal basis,” Coats said.

Even some Republicans expressed dismay that the assembled intelligence officials refused to confirm or deny what everyone had read on the front page of the morning newspaper.

“It just shows you what kind of an Orwellian existence that we live in,” McCain said. “It’s detailed, when you met and what you discussed. And yet here in public we can’t talk about what was described in detail in The Washington Post.”

Along with the FBI investigation, the House and Senate intelligence committees are conducting inquiries into reported Russian meddling in last fall’s election.

Outside the Capitol, there were three simultaneous Comey-related rallies. One tour guide told touring students that they were fortunate to be in the nation’s capital on such a historic week. A capital bar announced it will pour free drinks each time Trump tweets during Comey’s testimony Thursday.


Inside, so many reporters wanted to talk to members of Congress that security officials installed press pens, a unique step for the usually free-flowing building.

At the lunchroom in a Senate office building, a hush fell over the room as news spread that Comey’s opening testimony had been posted online.

In the corner, the cable station had a running clock, dedicated to counting down the moments until Comey’s testimony.

“Eighteen hours to go,” someone said.

Matt Viser can be reached at matt.viser@globe.com.