Comey: "That's a great question, I really don't know. I might have been.

"As I've said, that was an extraordinary and difficult time for me. I did what I thought I had to do.

"If she had been elected, I might have been fired, I really don't know."

The Clinton campaign was furious with Comey over his decision to announce the reopened investigation. into her emails just days before November's election.

BBC World Service

The Russian television presenter, Vladimir Pozner and the former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency, General Michael Hayden, discuss their presidents' differing world views.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says FBI director needs to be independent.

He adds that Trump is likely unfamiliar with protocol, and is "just new to this".

Question: "Do you think Trump colluded with Russia?"

Comey: "It's a question I don't think I should answer in an open setting.

"That's a question that will be answered by the investigation, I think."

Regarding Trump's tweeted warning that he may have taped Mr Comey, the former FBI director appears to be unconcered.

Back to the Clinton email affair.

Comey says he was concerned that the FBI made no statement about reopening the Clinton investigation in July 2016.

"It concerned me because we were at the point where we had refused to confirm the investigation for months, and that started to look silly.

"The Clinton campaign at the time was using all sorts of euphemisms, security review etc, and the attorney general and I were going to have to testify soon. She [the attorney general] said 'Don't call it an investigation, call it a matter'."

"In hindsight perhaps I should have resisted that more."

Comey says he was concerned that the FBI was being instructed to use the same kind of language as the Clinton camp.

"We had an investigation open at the time. So that gave me a queasy feeling."

Asked about alleged Russians attempts to influence the election, Comey says it is very likely they will make similar attempts again.

"They're gonna try to run it down and dirty it up as much as possible", he says about the American electoral system.

"We remain the shining city on that hill and they don't like it."

Senator Joe Manchin starts by saying that his constituents have sent him around 600 recommendations for questions to ask the former FBI director.

He says that West Virginians are closely watching today's hearing.

They're not the only ones.

Comey earlier referred to a law professor at Columbia University in New York and friend via to whom he leaked details of his meetings with the president. The Columbia law website crashed as people searched for the mystery professor.

Republican Oklahoma Senator James Lankford says Comey must carry an enormous amount of stress, and that he prays for him and his family.

Not often one hears a reference to 12th Century British history in a Senate hearing.

Senator Angus King, independent, asks Comey if he took Trump's remark that he "hoped" the Flynn inquiry would be dropped "as a directive".

Comey says he did, adding: "It kind of rings in my ear as, 'Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?'"

The remark is a reference to King Henry II’s fury at Archbishop of Canterbury ThomasBecket, who was murdered by the sovereign’s followers at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.

The most commonly quoted version of the British monarch's exasperation with his antagonist is actually: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

The lawyer that Trump has hired to defend him in the Russia investigation will make a statement following Comey's testimony.

Comey says that he asked his friend at Colombia University to release his records to the media, because to do so himself would be like "feeding seagulls at the beach".

He says that he asked for the documents to be leaked in order to build pressure for a special counsel.

Sen Blunt grills him on why he didn't simply take responsibility for the leak himself, but he runs out of time and Comey doesn't answer.

Comey says he was due to go out for dinner with his wife when Trump invited him to dine one-on-one at the White House. Comey says he had to cancel on his wife.

Senator Angus King quips: "That’s one of the all-time great excuses for breaking a date!"

A rare ripple of laughter through the hearing room.

Republican senator Roy Blunt of Missouri brings up the Logan Act in relation to General Flynn's alleged contacts with Russia.

The Logan Act is a federal law that makes it illegal for any private citizen to negotiate with a foreign power which is in a dispute with the US. It was designed to prevent citizens undermining the government's position in some way.

Here's a primer from the Atlantic, external on the act and how it might relate to this inquiry.

Here's the video of Comey's folksy turn of phrase, which belies the high stakes of the titanic political showdown he describes.

Trump said he "hoped" the investigation into Flynn would dropped, but did not "order" it closed.

That word choice could be what determines whether obstruction of justice has occurred.

So can "I hope" be taken as a threat?

It turns out the Supreme Court has pondered that same question before.

Comey returns to the February Oval Office meeting, in which the president asked the attorney general and top aide Jared Kusher, as well as others, to leave to room before beginning a discussion with Comey about Michael Flynn.

"That is a really significant fact to me. Why did he need to kick everyone out of the room?"

Comey says he immediately took notes in his car after the meeting using a classified FBI device.