Former FBI Director James Comey is steering clear of giving his opinion about whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice when he asked him to back off investigating ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Asked if the request rises to obstruction of justice, Comey told the Senate intelligence committee that he didn't know and that it would be special counsel Robert Mueller's job to sort that out.

Earlier in his testimony, Comey said he doesn't think it would be fair for him to say whether the conversation he had with the president was an effort to obstruct the FBI probe into Russian activities during the election.

Comey told the committee that at the time, he did not escalate his concerns about the conversation out of fear that it would harm the investigation.

"I think no action was the most important thing I could do," he said.

Comey also contradicted Trump's assertion that Comey requested a meeting with him to discuss his job.

Asked about the interaction by Sen. Angus King, an Independent from Maine, Comey said that he received a call from the president that day, adding that he had to cancel dinner plans with his wife.

"That's one of the all-time great excuses for breaking a dinner date," King said.

Comey also says he asked a friend to leak the contents of his memo about meetings with President Donald Trump.

Comey earlier he felt that releasing the details of his private conversations with the president might prompt the appointment of a special counsel in the case.

When asked to clarify, he told the committee that he believes it was his right as a private citizen to do so.

POOL

Washington - June 8, 2017

1. Wide of hearing room

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Joe Manchin, (D) West Virginia AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

MANCHIN: "Do you believe this will rise to the obstruction of Justice?"

COMEY: "I don't know. That's Bob Mueller's job to sort that out."

3. Wide of hearing

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Martin Heinrich, (D) New Mexico AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

HEINRICH: "There are reports that the incoming Trump administration either during the transition and or after the inauguration attempted to set up a sort of backdoor communication channel with the Russian government using their infrastructure, their devices, their facilities. What would be the risks? Particularly for a transition, somebody not actually in the office of the president yet to setting up unauthorized channels with a hostile foreign government -- especially if they were to evade our own American intelligence services?"

COMEY: "Well, I'm not going to comment on whether that happened in an open setting, but the primary risk is obvious. You spare the Russians the cost and effort of having to break into our communications channels by using theirs. And so, you make it a whole lot easier to capture all of your conversations and then to use those to the benefit of Russia against the United States."

5. Wide of hearing

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Roy Blunt, (R) Missouri AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

BLUNT: "If the president hadn't terminated your service, would you still be the director of the FBI today?"

COMEY: "Yes, sir."

BLUNT: "So, you took as a direction from the president something that you thought was serious and troublesome, but continued to show up for work the next day?"

COMEY: "Yes, sir."

BLUNT: "And six weeks later, we're still telling, we're telling the president on March 30th that he was not personally the target of any investigation?"

COMEY: "Correct. On March the 30th and I think again on April 11th as well I told him we're not investigating him, personally, that was true."

BLUNT: "Well, the point to me that concern to me is there that all these things going on you now, in retrospect, or at least you now to this committee... you had serious concerns about what the president, had you believed, directed you to do, had taken no action -- hadn't even reported up the chain of command -- assuming you believe that there is an up the chain of command -- that these things had happened. Do you have a sense of that looking back that that was a mistake?"

COMEY: "No. In fact, I think that no action was the most important thing I could do to make sure there was no interference with the investigation."

++BLACK FRAMES++

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Angus King, (I) Maine AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

KING: "In his interview with Lester Holt on NBC, the president said 'I had dinner with him. He wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on.' Is this an accurate statement?"

COMEY: "No, sir."

KING: "Did you in any way initiate that dinner?"

COMEY: "No. He called me at my desk at lunch time and asked me was I free for dinner that night, had called himself and said 'can you come over for dinner tonight?' And I said 'yes, sir.' He said 'Will six work?' I think he said six first. And then he said 'I was going to invite your whole family, but we'll do that next time. I want you to come over. Is that a good time?' I said 'sir, whatever works for you.' And then he said 'how about 6:30?' And I said 'whatever works for you, sir' and then I hung up. And I had to call my wife and break a date with her, I was supposed to take her out to dinner that night."

KING: "That's one of the all-time great excuses for breaking a dinner date."

COMEY: "In retrospect, I love spending time with my wife, I wish I'd been there that night."

++BLACK FRAMES++

8. SOUNDBTE (English) Sen. Roy Blunt, (R) Missouri AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

BLUNT: "What kind of information did you give to a friend?"

COMEY: "That the Flynn conversation... That the president asked me to let the Flynn -- I'm forgetting my exact own words, but the conversation in the Oval Office."

BLUNT: "So, you didn't consider your memo or your sense of that conversation to be a government document, you considered it to be somehow your own personal document that you could share with the media as you wanted to?"

COMEY: "Correct. I understood this to be my recollection that was recorded --of my conversation with the president, as a private citizen I felt free to share that I thought it very important to get it out."

++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++

Former FBI Director James Comey is steering clear of giving his opinion about whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice when he asked him to back off investigating ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Asked if the request rises to obstruction of justice, Comey told the Senate intelligence committee that he didn't know and that it would be special counsel Robert Mueller's job to sort that out.

Earlier in his testimony, Comey said he doesn't think it would be fair for him to say whether the conversation he had with the president was an effort to obstruct the FBI probe into Russian activities during the election.

Comey told the committee that at the time, he did not escalate his concerns about the conversation out of fear that it would harm the investigation.

"I think no action was the most important thing I could do," he said.

Comey also contradicted President Trump's assertion that Comey requested a meeting with him to discuss his job.

Asked about the interaction by Sen. Angus King, an Independent from Maine, Comey said that he received a call from the president that day, adding that he had to cancel dinner plans with his wife.

"That's one of the all-time great excuses for breaking a dinner date," King said.

Comey also says he asked a friend to leak the contents of his memo about meetings with President Donald Trump.

Comey earlier he felt that releasing the details of his private conversations with the president might prompt the appointment of a special counsel in the case.

When asked to clarify, he told the committee that he believes it was his right as a private citizen to do so.

POOL

Washington - June 8, 2017

1. Wide of hearing room

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Joe Manchin, (D) West Virginia AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

MANCHIN: "Do you believe this will rise to the obstruction of Justice?"

COMEY: "I don't know. That's Bob Mueller's job to sort that out."

3. Wide of hearing

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Martin Heinrich, (D) New Mexico AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

HEINRICH: "There are reports that the incoming Trump administration either during the transition or after the inauguration attempted to set up a sort of backdoor communication channel with the Russian government using their infrastructure, their devices, their facilities. What would be the risks? Particularly for a transition, somebody not actually in the office of the president yet to setting up unauthorized channels with a hostile foreign government -- especially if they were to evade our own American intelligence services?"

COMEY: "Well, I'm not going to comment on whether that happened in an open setting, but the primary risk is obvious. You spare the Russians the cost and effort of having to break into our communications channels by using theirs. And so, you make it a whole lot easier to capture all of your conversation and then to use those to the benefit of Russia against the United States."

5. Wide of hearing

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Roy Blunt, (R) Missouri AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

BLUNT: "If the president hadn't terminated your service, would you still be the director of the FBI today?"

COMEY: "Yes, sir."

BLUNT: "So, you took as a direction from the president something that you thought was serious and troublesome, but continued to show up for work the next day?"

COMEY: "Yes, sir."

BLUNT: "And six weeks later, we're still telling, we're telling the president on March 30th that he was not personally the target of any investigation?"

COMEY: "Correct. On March the 30th and I think again on April 11th as well I told him we're not investigating him, personally, that was true."

BLUNT: "Well, the point to me that concern to me is there that all these things going on you now, in retrospect, or at least you now to this committee... you had serious concerns about what the president, you believed, directed you to do, had taken no action -- hadn't even reported up the chain of command -- assuming you believe that there is a chain of command -- that these things had happened. Do you have a sense of that looking back that that was a mistake?"

COMEY: "No. In fact, I think that no action was the most important thing I could do to make sure there was no interference with the investigation."

++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY BLACK++

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Angus King, (I) Maine AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

KING: "In his interview with Lester Holt on NBC, the president said 'I had dinner with him. He wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on.' Is this an accurate statement?"

COMEY: "No, sir."

KING: "Did you in any way initiate that dinner?"

COMEY: "No. He called me at my desk at lunch time and asked me was I free for dinner that night, had called himself and said 'can you come over for dinner tonight?' And I said 'yes, sir.' He said 'Will six work?' I think he said six first. And then he said 'I was going to invite your whole family, but we'll do that next time. I want you to come over. Is that a good time?' I said 'sir, whatever works for you.' And then he said 'how about 6:30?' And I said whatever works for you, sir and then I hung up. And I had to call my wife and break a date with her, I was supposed to take her out to dinner that night."

KING: "That's one of the all-time great excuses for breaking a dinner date."

COMEY: "In retrospect, I love spending time with my wife, I wish I'd been there that night."

++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY BLACK++

8. SOUNDBTE (English) Sen. Roy Blunt, (R) Missouri AND James Comey, Former FBI Director

BLUNT: "What kind of information did you give to a friend?"

COMEY: "That the Flynn conversation... That the president asked me to let the Flynn -- I'm forgetting my exact own words, but the conversation in the Oval Office."

BLUNT: "So, you didn't consider your memo or your sense of that conversation to be a government document, you considered it to be your own personal document that you could share with the media as you wanted to?"

COMEY: "Correct. I understood this to be my recollection that was recorded -- as a private citizen I felt free to share that I felt it was important to get it out."