Former FBI director, James Comey speaks publicly for the first time since his abrupt firing, telling Senate that he took President Trump’s words as “a direction” to drop the investigation of ex-national security advisor Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia in a Senate hearing today on Capitol Hill led by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

“I didn’t obey that,” Comey said to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Comey said he now believes Trump fired him to relieve pressure from the ongoing FBI investigation into possible collusion between Trump associates and Russia. The U.S. intelligence community has accused Moscow of seeking to influence the 2016 presidential election by hacking Democrats.

“I was fired in some way to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted,’’ Comey said. “That is a big deal. On top of that, the Russia investigation itself is vital because of the threat.’’

Comey later said one of the reasons he began documenting all of his conversations with Trump, which he had not done with President Barack Obama, was because he “was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting.”

“I knew there might come a day when I might need a record of what happened not just to defend myself” but also the FBI, Comey added.

“My impression is something big is about to happen. I need to remember every word that is spoken,” he said of the memos he wrote.

The White House initially said Comey was fired because of his controversial handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server, on the recommendation of Justice Department leadership.

Yet in an interview soon after with NBC, Trump called Comey a “showboat” and a “grandstander” and confirmed that the Russia investigation was indeed on his mind when he fired Comey, adding he would have fired the FBI chief regardless of the Justice Department’s recommendation. Comey said he was “confused” to learn on television that the president “actually” fired him because of the Russia investigation.

On Trump’s February 14 private conversation with Comey in the Oval Office, the day after Flynn was asked to resign for misleading Vice President Pence over his conversations with the Russian ambassador during the transition, Comey said that he believed the president was indeed directing him to withdraw the investigation into Flynn.

“I took it as a direction,” which he didn’t follow, Comey said. “I took it as, this is what he wants me to do.” Comey also added that, at that time, Flynn was indeed in “legal jeopardy” over his ties and contacts with the Russians.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go,” Comey quoted the president as saying. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Comey told the senate committee that he was “so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in.”

He noted that Attorney General Jeff Sessions tried to linger in on that meeting, and he said that it was his “sense” that Sessions “knew he shouldn’t be leaving.” According to Comey’s written testimony, he later told Sessions he didn’t want to be left alone with Trump again. Comey said during questioning that he was “stunned” by that conversation and the president asking everyone else to leave and later said it was a “significant fact” to him as a prosecutor that Trump wanted to speak with him alone.

He also said that he hoped that the president was serious when he tweeted that there might be tapes of the conversation. “Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Comey said, later promising to consent to the release of them. “The president surely knows whether he taped me, and if he did, my feelings aren’t hurt. Release all the tapes. I’m good with it.”

Notably, Comey said Trump made several public statements that were false after he was fired. Among them, Comey said, was the president’s denial at a White House news conference last month that he ever asked the FBI inquiry into Flynn to be shut down.

Comey also said Trump “defamed me and the FBI’’ after the president dismissed him last month. “Those were lies, plain and simple, and I am so sorry the FBI workforce had to hear them, and the American people were told them,” Comey said.