The stage is set for fireworks on Capitol Hill, where the former Director of the FBI James Comey will claim today that President Trump pressured him to drop an investigation into ties between one of the President's top associates and the Russians.
In a written statement already submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr. Comey says the President asked him to "let" the investigation into Michael Flynn "go".
He also claims the President demanded "loyalty" from the FBI Director, even though the position is supposed to be politically independent.
From Washington, Simon Marks reports.
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President Trump was in Ohio when James Comey dropped his bombshell…..gave the Senate Intelligence Committee authorization to publish the written statement that will serve as the bedrock for his evidence.
At the time, the President was making a speech about his infrastructure initiative…..
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But with planning that was clearly deliberate, Mr Comey put his claims into the public domain while President Trump was physically unable to Tweet.
He has, after all, threatened live reaction to Mr. Comey's testimony on Capitol Hill via his favorite social media platform.
Now and President and everyone else knows what Mr. Comey will claim: that President Trump engaged in a series of wholly inappropriate conversations challenging the political independence of the FBI Director - 9 of them in all, leading Mr. Comey to urge Department of Justice officials to keep the President away from him.
Mr. Trump wanted Mr. Comey to make the investigation into ties between ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the Russians go away.
"I hope you can see your way to letting this go", the President is said told his FBI Director.
In separate conversations he was urged to "lift the cloud" of suspicion hanging over the White House.
He was also urged to pledge his "loyalty" to the President….something Mr. Comey concluded was an attempt to create a "patronage relationship" between them.
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That's New York Congressman Lee Zeldin, a Republican, who - worryingly for the White House - says he doesn't question James Comey's account of events.
Neither it seems does former Republican Presidential candidate, and intelligence committee member, Senator John McCain.
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The Republican National Committee is, for now, standing by the President….saying Mr. Comey's testimony proves that the President himself was not a target of the FBI's investigation.
That's true….but by Mr. Comey's account, the President suggested that the FBI an investigation into claims that during a Miss Universe event in Russia, Donald Trump had sexual relationships with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel.
Mr. Comey suggested to him that was a bad idea, because it might fuel the notion that Mr. Trump was under investigation, which he wasn't…..it's one of many occasions when Mr Comey appears to have been trying to save Donald Trump from himself.
James Comey won't get an entirely smooth ride on Capitol Hill.
Republican Congressman Chris Stewart of Utah previewed one of the questions he's like to face.
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Whether he kept any powder dry and has more revelations, we won't know until after James Comey is sworn in as a witness.
But he is already fueling the notion that Donald Trump fired him in an attempt to obstruct justice….a charge that could, theoretically, lead to the President's impeachment if enough Republicans were to get behind it.
At the time, the President claimed he was ditching the FBI chief over his mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail account when she was Secretary of State.
And yet that issue never appears to have been raised by Donald Trump in any of those 9 conversations with the man he eventually fired.
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