Article snippet: As the countdown begins for James Comey's highly-anticipated congressional hearing Thursday, sources tell ABC News that the former President Trump and repeated encounters that made him uneasy. Comey's interactions with Trump have come under intense scrutiny since his firing last month, causing some lawmakers to question whether it was related to the ongoing FBI investigation into alleged Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election. Among the Senate Intelligence Committee's primary inquiry will be to ask Comey about those encounters and the contemporaneous notes he reportedly took of his meetings with the president. Senators specifically want to know if Trump sought a pledge of loyalty from Comey early on --- and if Comey was pressured to go easy on former Michael Flynn, who was fired for misleading Trump administration officials about meetings he had had with Russia's ambassador the U.S. At the meeting where Comey is said to have rebuffed the president's reported loyalty pledge, one source described Comey as viewing the attempt as an amateurish effort to bring him under the president's wing. During their meetings, Comey was constantly assessing the president's motive, unsure whether Trump was doing something sinister or was someone simply used to getting his way and not versed in the protocols of Washington whereby the FBI director enjoys broad independence. For its part, the White House has previously disputed published media accounts of t... Link to the full article to read more