PRESIDENT Donald Trump has claimed “total and complete vindication” after ousted FBI director James Comey said he was not personally under investigation in a probe into Russian interference in last year’s US election.

Comey — who was sensationally sacked by Mr Trump on May 9 — had taken the stand in a crucial Senate hearing, repeating explosive allegations that US President Donald Trump badgered him over the highly sensitive investigation Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump, who did not post on his Twitter account as Comey appeared before the Senate intelligence committee, sent a tweet at daybreak Friday US time. In the post, the president said: “Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindicaiton ... and WOW, Comey is a leaker.”

Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2017

Trump was referring to Comey’s revelation that he had passed on to a friend a written memo he’d made detailing a meeting with Trump at the White House - and had asked a friend to give it to a reporter for the New York Times.

“I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel”, Comey said. The ploy worked. The Russia investigation is now being handled by a high-powered special prosecutor.

Comey painted a devastating picture of an untrustworthy president, who at best unknowingly shred the norms of office by pressing him on the Russia probe, and at worst may have criminally obstructed justice.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LIED, DEFAMED FBI

James Comey says he doesn’t buy the reason he was fired, saying the Trump Administration has lied and defamed him.

Mr Comey said Mr Trump’s administration spread “lies, plain and simple” and “defamed” him and the FBI.

Mr Comey said he was “confused” by the explanation that decisions he made (namely making public an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails) during the 2016 election were the reason he was fired by Mr Trump.

“The explanations … the shifting explanations confused me and increasingly concerned me. They confused me because the president and I had had multiple conversations about my job both before and after he took office, and he had repeatedly told me I was doing a great job and hoped I would stay,” Mr Comey said.

“It confused me when I saw on television the president say he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation and learned again from the media that he was telling privately other parties that my firing had relieved great pressure on the Russia investigation.”

“I was also confused by the initial explanation offered publicly that I was fired because of the decisions I had made during the election year — that didn’t make sense to me,” he said.

“That didn’t make sense to me for a whole bunch of reasons including the time, and all of the water that had gone under the bridge since those hard decisions that had to be made. That didn’t make any sense to me,” the former FBI director said.

“And although the law required no reason at all to fire an FBI director, the administration then chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI, by saying the organisation was in disarray; that it was poorly led. That the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies plain and simple.”

COMEY TOOK NOTES BECAUSE HE FEARED TRUMP WOULD LIE

Mr Comey said after his first meeting with Mr Trump, he had a “gut feeling” that he should start taking notes of what was said in order to “protect the FBI”, something he never did with former presidents Obama or Bush.

When asked why he felt that was necessary, he replied, “a combination of things; I think the circumstances, the subject matter and the person I was interacting with.”

“The circumstances first; I was alone with the president-elect of the United States, soon to be president. The subject matter that I was talking about, matters that touch on the FBI’s core responsibility that relate to the president-elect personally. And then the nature of the person.

“I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting and so I thought it really important to document. And the combination of things I’d never experienced before that had led me to believe I’ve got to write it down and I’ve got to write it down in a very detailed way.”

Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters to direct their questions to the president’s personal lawyer.

She was clear on one point, though — President Trump is not a liar.

“I can definitively say the president’s not a liar, and I think it’s frankly insulting that that question would be asked,” she said.

Mr Trump wanted Mr Comey to publicly state the private assurance he had given to the President that he was not the subject of any FBI probe amid widespread reports he was susceptible to blackmail for using Russian prostitutes.

Mr Comey told Mr Trump on three occasions there was no FBI investigation into the President and in his statement he reveals the pair’s conversations in awkward detail.

“The President said, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty,” Mr Comey said of a January 27 dinner, in a written statement released ahead of his appearance before the hearing today.

“I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence.”

Mr Comey said he tried to settle the conversation by instead pledging “honesty”, to which Mr Trump replied: “That’s what I want, honest loyalty”.

Mr Comey said the dinner was designed to “create some sort of patronage relationship”.

“My common sense told me that what’s going on here is he’s looking to get something in exchange for granting my request to stay in the job,” he told the hearing on Thursday.

Mr Comey said he felt “uneasy” about the loyalty pledge.

“The reason that Congress created a 10-year term (for the FBI director) is so that the director is not feeling as if they’re serving with political loyalty owed to any particular person,” he said.

“The statue of justice has a blindfold on because you’re not supposed to be peeking out to see whether your patron is pleased or not with what you’re doing.”

COMEY ‘STUNNED’ TRUMP ASKED HIM TO DROP FLYNN PROBE

Mr Comey said he was “stunned” when Mr Trump asked him to drop the bureau’s probe into ex-national security adviser Mike Flynn.

“I was so stunned by the conversation,” he said.

Asked by Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein why he just didn’t tell Mr Trump the conversation was inappropriate, Mr Comey said he probably should have.

“Maybe other people would be strong in that circumstance. I hope I never have another opportunity, [but] maybe if I did it again I would do it better,” he replied.

Instead, he only said, “I agree that Flynn was a good guy.”

KUSHNER BACK CHANNEL WOULD HAVE AIDED RUSSIA

Mr Comey also said Mr Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner would have helped Russian intelligence efforts if he had succeeded in setting up a “back-channel” line of communication with the Kremlin.

“The primary risk is obvious. You spare the Russians the cost and effort of having to break into our communication by using theirs and so make it a whole lot easier for them to capture all of your conversations and to use those to the benefit of Russia against the United States,” he said.

Mr Kushner is a person of interest in the special counsel’s criminal probe into Russia’s meddling in the election.

He allegedly approached Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and inquired about establishing the line of communications using equipment at the Russian embassy.

COMEY LEAKED TRUMP MEETING MEMOS

Mr Comey admitted that he leaked his personal notes on his meetings with President Donald Trump to prompt the naming of a special prosecutor to lead the Russia probe.

He said he asked a friend at Columbia Law School to share his written recollection of those conversations with a reporter after Mr Trump fired him on May 9.

“I didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons,” Mr Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “But I asked him to, because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel” to conduct the investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russian meddling in the 2016 election, he said.

The New York Times published a report on the Comey memo on May 16, and the following day former FBI director Robert Mueller was named special counsel to take over the investigation.

Professor Daniel Richman confirmed that he provided the information to the media at Mr Comey’s request.

AG LYNCH ‘WORKING WITH CLINTONS’

Mr Comey said that he suspected former Attorney-General Loretta Lynch was in cahoots with the Hillary Clinton campaign last summer.

Ms Lynch, he said, told him not to refer to the probe into Mrs Clinton’s private email server as an “investigation.”

“She said just call it a matter. … That concerned me because that language tracked how the campaign was talking about the FBI’s work,” he said.

Former President Bill Clinton’s surprise meeting with Ms Lynch at an Arizona airport also prompted him to go public with results of the FBI probe into the email server.

“That was the thing that capped it for me, that I had to do something separately to protect the credibility of the investigation, which meant both the FBI and the Justice Department,” Mr Comey said.

Mr Comey announced last July that criminal charges were not warranted, angering Republicans.

Comey Documented Trump Talks 'For Fear He Would Lie' Comey Documented Trump Talks 'For Fear He Would Lie'

COMEY: ‘LORDY, I HOPE THERE ARE TAPES’

Mr Comey also said he hoped that his private conversations with Donald Trump were recorded, as the president had suggested in a menacing tweet.

Mr Comey said he felt the need to document the interactions — during which he says Trump urged him to drop a probe into a former aide — for fear the president might “lie” about their meetings.

He directly addressed Trump’s suggestion, saying: “I’ve seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”

Three days after he fired the FBI chief last month, Mr Trump tweeted: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

‘LORDY’ QUOTE GOES VIRAL

Meanwhile, Twitter users have latched on to Mr Comey’s use of “Lordy.”

“Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Mr Comey said in referring to his meetings with Mr Trump.

The term quickly became a trending topic on Twitter.

We can all agree with Jim Comey that, Lordy, we hope there are tapes. — Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) June 8, 2017

Former New York City US Attorney Preet Bharara, who was also fired by Mr Trump, and who sat behind Mr Comey during his testimony, echoed the statement, writing: “We can all agree with Jim Comey that, Lordy, we hope there are tapes”.

Captain America actor Chris Evans quickly weighed in, saying he wanted Mr Comey’s phase on a T-shirt.

I need 'Lordy, I hope there are tapes' on a t-shirt — Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) June 8, 2017

For those unaccustomed to hearing the word, dictionary maker Merriam-Webster tweeted a definition and joked Mr Comey still used old-fashioned terms like “gadzooks” or “gramercy”.

TRUMP JR LIVE TWEETS COMEY TESTIMONY

Mr Trump managed to not give into any temptation to live tweet Mr Comey’s testimony, however his son Donald Jr couldn’t help himself.

Mr Trump Jr disputed Mr Comey’s suggestion that he was unclear about whether the president was putting pressure on him to drop the investigation into General Michael Flynn.

“Knowing my father for 39 years when he ‘orders or tells’ you to do something there is no ambiguity, you will know exactly what he means,” he wrote.

Mr Trump was reportedly bunkered down with a team of lawyers in his personal dining room at the White House, just off the Oval Office, ABC News reported.

1/3 Flynn stuff is BS in context 2 guys talking about a guy they both know well. I hear "I hope nothing happens but you have to do your job" — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 8, 2017

2/3 very far from any kind of coercion or influence and certainly not obstruction! — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 8, 2017

3/3 Knowing my father for 39 years when he "orders or tells" you to do something there is no ambiguity, you will know exactly what he means — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 8, 2017

So if he was a "Stronger guy" he might have actually followed procedure & the law? You were the director of the FBI, who are you kidding?😂 — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 8, 2017

In other words, he didn't https://t.co/m73mXeKYFz — Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) June 8, 2017

TRUMP’S LAWYER SAYS PRESIDENT “FEELS VINDICATED”

While his opponents have seized on the written testimony as confirmation the President attempted to obstruct the course of justice, his personal lawyer has said Mr Trump considered he had been “completely vindicated” by Mr Comey’s confirmation he was not the subject of an FBI investigation.

“The President is pleased that Mr Comey has finally publicly confirmed his private reports that the President was not under investigation in any Russia probe,” lawyer Marc Kasowitz said.

Mr Kasowitz says the president “never, in form or substance” directed sacked FBI director James Comey to stop investigating anyone, including former security aide Michael Flynn.

Mr Kasowitz said the Comey hearing established that Mr Trump was not being investigated for colluding, or attempting to obstruct the FBI investigation and denied Mr Trump ever asked for loyalty.

“Contrary to numerous false press accounts leading up to today’s hearing, Mr Comey has finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told the President privately: the President was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference,” Mr Kasowitz said.

“He also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference.”

Mr Kasowitz also accused Mr Comey of “unauthorised disclosures” of “privileged communications” he had with the president.

Mr Kasowitz said Mr Trump “is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda with the business of this country and with this public cloud removed”.

However Mr Trump’s critics said the dossier showed Mr Trump’s behaviour ranged from inappropriate to indictable.

Former adviser to the Watergate prosecutors, Philip Lacovara, wrote in the Washington Post that “Comey placed President Trump in the gunfights of a federal criminal investigation, laying out evidence sufficient for a case of obstruction of justice”.

RECORD OF EVENTS

In his lengthy statement, Mr Comey detailed nine conversations with Mr Trump, beginning January 6, when he first met the then President-elect at Trump Tower in New York and briefed Mr Trump about the infamous Russian “dossier”.

He said he was so concerned about the tone of his dialogue with Mr Trump he started typing up a memo of their conversation in his car outside the meeting.

“Creating written records immediately after one-on-one conversations with Mr Trump was my practice from that point forward,” he wrote.

In their final exchange, on April 11, he says the President asked him again to publicly deny the FBI probe accusations, saying: “I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know”.

This compared to just two direct exchanges he exchanged with Mr Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.

Comey's hearing in two minutes Comey's hearing in two minutes

EXECUTIVE OVERREACH

Mr Comey confirmed that Mr Trump asked him to end the investigation into General Michael Flynn, who was sacked after revelations he misled Vice President Mike Pence about meetings with the Russian ambassador.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr Comey says Mr Trump said to him the day after Gen. Flynn’s resignation.

“He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” I replied only that: ‘he is a good guy’.

“I immediately prepared an unclassified memo of the conversation about Flynn and discussed the matter with FBI senior leadership. I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December.

“It was very concerning, given the FBI’s role as an independent investigative agency.”

Mr Comey, who made extensive notes of his sometimes “very awkward conversations” with Mr Trump, explained why he was unwilling to publicly support the President over the “salacious” Russian prostitute allegations.

“I did not tell the President that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that change,” Mr Comey said.

JOHN McCAIN BLAMES “TIREDNESS” OVER CONFUSING QUESTIONS

Senator John McCain suggested he was tired when he questioned fired FBI director James Comey, a performance that lit up Twitter with unsparing criticism.

The 80-year-old Arizona Republican joked that maybe he shouldn’t stay up late watching the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team and said he missed an opportunity in Thursday’s hearing.

McCain said he wanted Mr Comey to answer whether or not Mr Trump’s interactions with Mr Comey constituted obstruction of justice.

McCain said: “I get the sense from Twitter that my line of questioning today went over people’s heads.”