Former FBI Director James Comey will say in his opening statement to a congressional hearing that President Donald Trump told him, "I need loyalty. I expect loyalty" during a January dinner and that the president later pressured him to publicly say he wasn't personally under investigation, according to a prepared statement released Wednesday afternoon.

Comey is set to testify before the U.S. Senate intelligence committee Thursday. It's not clear why his seven-page prepared statement was released Wednesday afternoon.

January 27

The former FBI director said he and the president had dinner at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27, in the Green Room at the White House. 

"It turned out to be just the two of us, seated at a small oval table in the center of the Green Room," Comey's opening statement reads. "Two Navy stewards waited on us, only entering the room to serve food and drinks.

"The president began by asking me whether I wanted to stay on as FBI director, which I found strange because he had already told me twice in earlier conversations that he hoped I would stay, and I had assured him that I intended to," Comey's prepared statement reads.

According to the statement, Comey went on to tell Trump that he "wasn't on anybody's side politically and could not be counted on in the traditional political sense, a stance I said was in his best interest as the president."

Comey, according to his statement, will then testify: "A few moments later, the president said, 'I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.' 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."

February 14

Comey will also recount an already well-known incident at the White House on Feb. 14, where the president talked to the former FBI director about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

In Comey's statement, he says the president told him Flynn had done nothing wrong in speaking with the Russians, saying "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

Comey says in the statement that he believed the president was requesting the FBI "drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. I did not understand the president to be tlaking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign."

Comey then went on to say he spoke to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and requested that Sessions prevent any future direct communication between Comey and President Trump.

Comey also details two subsequent conversations with the president, in which he requests Comey somehow get out the information that he was not personally under investigation because of Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, saying there was a "cloud" on his presidency that was getting in the way of his work.

Trump abruptly fired Comey last month. He announced Wednesday that he'll nominate lawyer Christopher Wray, a former Justice Department official, to be the new FBI director.

It's not known exactly how much detail Comey will divulge about any current investigations at this public committee hearing. That's because there is an independent investigation going on currently, under the direction of former FBI Director Robert Mueller, and Comey will not want to interfere in that.