Comey is expected to tell senators that he never assured Trump he was not under investigation

Washington (CNN)In his much-anticipated congressional testimony on Thursday, fired FBI Director James Comey will dispute President Donald Trump's blanket claim that he was told he was not under investigation multiple times, according to sources familiar with Comey's thinking.

Rather, one source said that Comey is expected to tell senators that he never assured Trump he was not under investigation, because such assurances would have been improper. Another source hinted that the President may have misunderstood the exact meaning of Comey's words, especially regarding the FBI's ongoing counterintelligence investigation.

In his letter to Comey firing him, Trump raised the Russia investigation and asserted that: "...I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation." The White House has not provided details of when those three conversations allegedly took place.

In addition, one source familiar with Comey's testimony says that Comey is not going to conclude whether the President obstructed justice regarding the agency's Russia investigation, according to a source with knowledge. Rather, this source says, Comey plans to present himself as a "fact witness" by simply describing the interactions with the President on multiple occasions that made him uneasy enough to memorialize their conversations. He "will leave the legal analysis for others," a source tells CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/06/politics/comey-testimony-refute-trump-russian-investigation/index.html