Image source, Rossiya 24

Russian state TV calls Comey testimony "The Comey Show, the most important political show".

Its 15:00GMT news bulletin started with a lengthy, five-minute report about about the hearing.

"The senators are dreaming about the Kremlin, they are apparently still worrying about the topic of its alleged interference in the US election campaign," the presenter said, before handing over to a correspondent in the US.

The correspondent there dwelt at length on the hearing over a TV link-up.

Comey says he woke up in the middle of the night after Trump had tweeted to warn that there might be tapes of their meeting.

"I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday, because it didn't occur to me earlier, that there may be corroboration, there might be a tape," says Comey.

"So I asked a friend of mine to share the contents of the memo with a reporter. I didn't share it myself for a variety of reasons."

This friend was apparently not Benjamin Wittes, but a professor of law at Columbia University. Wittes, a friend of Comey who edits the Lawfare blog, was the source for a New York Times story which detailed the memo.

Columbia Law’s Faculty Page has crashed since Comey’s mention.

http://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty, external

In case you're not familiar with the term...

Comey said earlier: "Lordy I hope there are tapes" that can corroborate his version of discussions with the president.

It was Comey who briefed Trump on the salacious and unverified claims in the Steele dossier (that Trump consorted with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel).

This briefing was done privately, Comey says, to avoid embarrassment to the president.

Trump had a "strong and defensive reaction" to the allegations, Comey says.

"My reading was that it was important to reassure him that we weren't investigating him."

But this is important: Comey explains that this reassurance, which was trumpeted by the president, related specifically and only to the salacious claims in the Steele dossier, and not to the broader Russia inquiry.

Comey says he didn't want to get into a "J Edgar Hoover type sitaution".

"I didn't want him to think I was briefing him (on the dossier) in order to hang it over him in some way."

Sen Wyden asked what the effect would have been if the president had got what he wanted in terms of the Flynn investigation.

Comey: "Well, we would have closed any investigation into Flynn and any contacts with Russians in the late part of December.

"We would have dropped an open investigation."

Comey then addresses the decision not to inform FBI agents working on the investigation about the president's remarks.

"As good as our people are, we don't want them hearing that the president wants this to go away, because it might affect their ability to be impartial and effective."

Here's a clip of that explosive moment from testimony earlier...

Before beginning his questions, Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from the state of Oregon, suggests that an "abuse of power" has taken place.

Wyden points out that according to Comey notes, at one dinner Trump "raised your job prospects, asked for your loyalty and denied allegations against him".

Wyden: "Did that dinner suggest your job would be contingent on how you handled the investigation?"

Comey: "I don't know that I'd go that far."

Sen Rubio summarises what Trump said to Comey

1. Be loyal

2. Let the Mike Flynn probe go

3. Please tell the American people that I'm not under investigation

Rubio concludes: "Do you ever wonder why in this investigation the only thing that’s never been leaked is that the president himself is not under investigation?"

Comey tells the committee he was disturbed by a conversation he and President Trump had had about Michael Flynn - who was sacked as national security adviser for lying about his contacts with Russia.

Comey said Trump had expressed a "hope" he would see a way to let the investigation go. Comey explained to the committee why he took that to be a direction by the President.

"The context and the president's words are what led me to that conclusion. As I said in my statement - I could be wrong but Flynn had been forced to resign the day before, and the controversy around General Flynn at that time was centred on whether he had lied to the Vice-President about the nature of his conversation with the Russians, whether he had been candid with others in the course of that. And so, that happens on the day before, on the 14th [of February] the President makes specific reference to that, and so that's why I understood him to be saying that what he wanted me to do was drop any investigation connected to Flynn's account of his conversations with the Russian."

Senator Feinstein asks Comey how his FBI colleagues reacted to Trump telling the director he hoped the investigation would be dropped.

"I think they were as shocked and troubled as I was," he says.

"They're all experienced professionals and they had never experienced such a thing, he adds.

"Then the conversation turned to what we should do about it. That was a struggle for us."

As Comey described in his written statement, senior FBI leaders decided to keep the details of the meeting to themselves for the meantime, including keeping the Department of Justice and Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the dark.

So far no tweets from the president, but his son, Donald Trump Jr, appears to be live-tweeting the hearing.

California Democrat Dianne Feinstein asks Comey whether the Russia investigation contributed to his firing.

Comey: "Yes, because I’ve seen the president say so."

"It was very, very awkward," adds Comey about Trump's request for loyalty.

He's asked if he believes the Russia investigation played a role in his firing, and Comey bluntly responds "yes, because I've seen the president say so on TV".

Image source, Reuters

"I was so stunned by the conversation that I just stopped and took it in," Comey says of Trump's request to halt the Flynn investigation.

"I've seen the [Trump] tweet about tapes and Lordy, I hope there are tapes!" he says referring to Trump's threat to release "tapes" of Comey.

Sen Risch, Republican from Idaho, is grilling Comey about the exact wording of Trump's alleged request to Comey for him to drop an investigation into Michael Flynn and whether it amounts to obstruction of justice.

The senator is insisting that the fact that thre president used the words "I hope", rather than expressly asking him to drop to the investigation, does not amount to obstruction of justice.

Sen: "Did he did direct you to let it go?"

Comey: "Not in those words".

Sen: "He did not order you to let it go?"

Comey again says Trump did not.

Risch asks whether Trump said he "hoped that he would let it go" and Comey confirms that those were the words chosen by the president.

Here's the relevant passage from Comey's notes:

Law professors seems to agree with the senator. The president's comments were controversial, but not an open and shut case of obstruction.

You can read more on the obstruction of justice issue here.

Donald Trump Jnr is live tweeting proceeding. Here's his take on the obstruction issue

The Republican from Idaho says that as a former prosecutor he appreciates the legalistic terms used in Comey's testimony.

He asks Comey if it is correct that Trump was not personally under investigation.

Comey confirms that he did tell Trump on three occasions that that was the case.

Some people were expecting President Trump to be live-tweeting his version of events throughout the hearing, but there has been no word yet.

Sen Warner asks what Comey meant by saying Trump sought a "patronage relationship".

Comey says it was his "common sense" conclusion from his dinner conversation with Trump, in which the president asked if Comey wanted to stay on as FBI director.

He says Trump may have had the notion, "you already asked Comey to say, but you didn't get anything for it".

He adds that they discussed loyalty in the context of him keeping his job.

The BBC's Charlie Northcott is watching things unfold from a bar in Washington DC...

Comey just described a one-on-one February meeting in the Oval Office which particularly troubled him. Here's the excerpt from his prepared remarks in which he detailed that meeting.

He just said in the Senate that he suspected the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, knew it was inappropriate to leave the room, and so he lingered, but Trump eventually instructed everybody else to leave.

"The President signaled the end of the briefing by thanking the group and telling them all that he wanted to speak to me alone. I stayed in my chair. As the participants started to leave the Oval Office, the Attorney General lingered by my chair, but the President thanked him and said he wanted to speak only with me. The last person to leave was Jared Kushner, who also stood by my chair and exchanged pleasantries with me.

"The President then excused him, saying he wanted to speak with me. When the door by the grandfather clock closed, and we were alone, the President began by saying, “I want to talk about Mike Flynn.” Flynn had resigned the previous day.

"The President began by saying Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the Vice President. He added that he had other concerns about Flynn, which he did not then specify. The President then made a long series of comments about the problem."