Top intelligence leaders testified Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET before the Senate Intelligence Committee. 
 
 Scheduled to testify: 
 
 Dan Coats -- Director of national intelligence 
 
 Andrew McCabe -- Acting FBI director 
 
 Mike Rogers -- NSA director 
 
 Rod Rosenstein -- Deputy attorney general 
 
 HIGHLIGHTS: 
 
 Rogers, Coats decline to comment on conversations they've had with Trump, though Rogers said he's never "been directed to do anything illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate" as NSA director 
 
 The four officials decline to discuss whether they've taken notes or issued memos related to the Russia probe 
 
 Burr rips witnesses for not answering questions surrounding Comey firing and Russia probe 
 
 The hearing was focused on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), though there were a slew of questions involving the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. 
 
 This comes a day before Comey is set to testify publicly before Congress for the first time on Thursday since President Trump fired him as FBI director last month. 
 
 See live updates of Wednesday's hearing below. 
 
 Burr rips witnesses for not answering questions 
 
 Burr said he had one final message that he wants the witnesses to deliver to the Trump administration. He said that in cases where there's sensitivity of activities, there is a mechanism for congressional oversight whereby officials can brief and notify the Gang of Eight, which includes congressional leadership in both the House and Senate and on both sides of the aisle. 
 
 "At no time, should you be in a position to come to Congress without an answer," Burr warned them. 
 
 Warner says "the president is not above the law" 
 
 Warner said that he's come out of the hearing "with more questions than when I went in." He said that Coats and Rogers were both willing to characterize their conversations with the president, arguing that they didn't feel pressure, but Warner ridiculed them for not sharing the content of those discussions. 
 
 Warner said he's "pretty frustrated" that there is a deference to a special prosecutor and he said while their "feelings response" is important, so is the contents of their communications with Trump. 
 
 "The president is not above the law," Warner said. 
 
 Warner asked if it would be concerning if the president intervened in an investigation. 
 
 "If anybody obstructs an investigation, that would be a subject of concern," Rosenstein said, adding that it would investigated appropriately. 
 
 Cotton seeks to clarify how 702 works with U.S. citizens 
 
 Cotton, who has introduced a permanent extension of FISA, asked the officials if FISA's Sec. 702 allows the intelligence agencies to collect information on U.S. citizens. Rogers explained that they collect intelligence on foreigners outside the U.S. since NSA is a foreign intelligence organization. Rosenstein explained that if a foreigner is inside the U.S., the intelligence agencies have to rely on other provisions of FISA. Cotton asked McCabe what happens if an ISIS terrorist comes to the U.S., and he said that the NSA notifies the FBI and they work together to pursue coverage under a FISA statute. 
 
 King grills Rogers and Coats about why they're not answering questions 
 
 Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, spent several minutes grilling Rogers and Coats about why they aren't answering questions regarding the Comey firing or the Russia probe. 
 
 Asked if the White House was invoking executive priviledge, Rogers said he wasn't aware of that. King then asked why he isn't answering questions. Rogers said, "I feel it isn't appropriate, senator" and added that he stands by his comment and he's not going to repeat himself and he said he doesn't mean it in a contentious way. King said that his questions are intended to be contentious. 
 
 McCabe explains FBI involvement with 702 
 
 Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, asked McCabe what happens when the FBI wants to follow up on or pursue a U.S. person in or outside the U.S. McCabe explained that they would seek a FISA warrant under Title I. Asked if the FBI ever seeks collection under 702, McCabe said that if the FBI has a full investigation on a foreign person in a foreign place, the bureau would nominate that person for 702 coverage at the NSA. 
 
 McCabe is asking about his conversations with Comey 
 
 Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, asked McCabe if he had a conversation with Comey about the president asking for Comey's loyalty. McCabe said he isn't in a position to comment because those matters fall within the scope of the special counsel's investigation. McCabe said he wants Comey to speak for himself when he testifies before the Intelligence panel on Thursday morning. 
 
 Wyden asks officials whether they ever took notes or issued memos related to Russia probe 
 
 Coats said he doesn't take notes, Rosenstein said he rarely takes notes and that he's not going to answer questions on the Russia investigation. McCabe said he's not going to comment on any conversations he's had or if he wrote any notes. Rogers echoed that answer. 
 
 Rubio presses officials whether anyone has asked them to influence an ongoing probe 
 
 The Florida Republican asked if Coats and Rogers have ever been asked to influence an ongoing investigation. Coats said he's not prepared to answer in an open session. Rubio asked them if anyone ever asked them to issue a statement that wasn't true and Rogers and Coats refused to answer. 
 
 Rogers explains the NSA's unmasking process 
 
 The unmasking process for the NSA, Rogers said, is defined in writing and in terms of who has the authority to unmask, he said there are 20 individuals in 12 different positions including Rogers. He said that the NSA outlines in writing what criteria will be applied in the request to unmask. 
 
 Rogers said that when a U.S. person is referenced in an intelligence report, they don't identify the person. Some of the recipients of the report, he said, will sometimes come back to the NSA and ask who the unnamed individuals are. 
 
 The criteria: He said that the recipient must request in writing that the person's identity be unmasked, the request must be made on the basis of the official's duties and the basis of the request must be that the official needs the identity to understand the intelligence he or she is reading. One of the 20 individuals, he said, would then agree or disagree to unmask and if the NSA unmasks, the unmasking goes back only to the person who made the request. 
 
 Coats also declines to comment on specific conversations with Trump 
 
 Warner brought up reports about the president asking Rogers and Coats to downplay the Russia investigation and that the president asked him and the CIA director to intervene with then-FBI Director James Comey. 
 
 Coats said he doesn't believe "it's appropriate for me to address that in a public session." 
 
 Rogers comments on report that Trump asked him to downplay Russia probe 
 
 Warner raised reports about the president asking Rogers and Coats to downplay the Russia investigation. He asked Rogers whether in his experience, if it would be typical for the president to ask questions, to bring up an ongoing FBI probe, particularly if that probe involves people associated with the president or his campaign. 
 
 Rogers said he's "not going to discuss theoreticals" and he's not going to discuss specific conversations with the president. But, he said he would make one comment. He said in the more than 3 years that he has served as NSA director, he said, "I've never been directed to do anything illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate." He said he does not "recall feeling pressured" to do something. 
 
 Warner said he's disappointed with his answer. 
 
 Coats reveals case that he classified to illustrate the value of Sec. 702 
 
 He said that as a result of 702, the U.S. was able to find and kill ISIS's finance minister, Haji Iman, in March 2016. Coats said that the NSA, along with its intelligence community partners, spent over two years from 2014 to 2016 looking for Iman. 
 
 He explained that the NSA learned of a person "closely associated" with Iman and collected intelligence on the associate, forming a robust network. The NSA and its tactical partners, Coats said, combined the information and was able to identify Iman and track his movements. This allowed U.S. forces, he said, to attempt an apprehension of Iman in March 2016. The operation led to shots being fired at U.S. forces, which led to the killing of Iman and other associates at that location. 
 
 Coats defends FISA's Sec. 702, urges Congress to reauthorize the surveillance program 
 
 Coats, the director of national intelligence, in his opening joint statement, said that intelligence collection under 702 has produced and continues to produce "significant intelligence" that he said is "vital" to protect the nation from international terrorism, cyber threats and proliferation. He said it contains strong protections for privacy. 
 
 Coats said that since FISA was implemented a decade ago, there has been rigorous oversight over the program. 
 
 He said that in the nearly 10 years since Congress enacted legislation that established FISA there have been "no instances" of intentional violations of 702. He said that it may not be used to target U.S. persons anywhere in the world and cannot be used to target anyone in the U.S., regardless of their nationality. 
 
 "We have never, not once, found an intentional violation of the program. There have been unintended mistakes," he said. "None of these mistakes has been intentional." 
 
 Warner says he will address reports surrounding Comey firing, Russia probe 
 
 Warner, the top Democrat on the panel, acknowledged reports that Trump was thinking of the Russia probe when he fired Comey as FBI director. He said that lawmakers will have the opportunity Wednesday to ask Rosenstein about his role in the Comey firing. He highlighted reports that said that the president asked at least two leaders of the intelligence agencies to publicly downplay the Russia investigation and asked Coats and CIA Director Pompeo to pull back on the Russia probe. 
 
 "If any of this is true, it would be an appalling and improper use of our intelligence professionals," Warner said. 
 
 Burr highlights need to approve "critical" foreign intelligence surveillance tool 
 
 The chairman said that the panel's hearing highlights the most critical foreign intelligence tool -- FISA -- which he said expires on Dec. 31 unless Congress reauthorizes it. He spoke about Sec. 702 of Title 7 which he said provides the capability to target foreigners located outside the U.S. but whose foreign communications happen to be routed to and acquired in the U.S. 
 
 Burr said that the program is "exceptionally critical" to protecting Americans at home and abroad and in preventing terror attacks. 
 
 He acknowledged that there may be discussion about Russian interference in the 2016 election. ||||| The attorney general is facing increased scrutiny from lawmakers after former FBI Director James Comey testified last week. | Getty Sessions to testify in open hearing before Senate Intelligence Committee 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify in an open hearing Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee on his role in the unfolding Russia investigation, according to congressional and Justice Department officials. 
 
 Sessions informed Congress over the weekend that he will appear before the intelligence committee, rather than before previously scheduled hearings regarding funding for the Justice Department. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 DOJ and Senate officials did not initially indicate over the weekend whether Sessions' appearance would be public or private. The hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. 
 
 The attorney general is facing increased scrutiny from lawmakers after former FBI Director James Comey testified last week that he knew details about Sessions before his recusal from the Russia probe that would make his involvement in the investigation “problematic.” 
 
 The DOJ said in a statement, "The Attorney General has requested that this hearing be public. He believes it is important for the American people to hear the truth directly from him and looks forward to answering the committee's questions tomorrow." 
 
 Over the weekend, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the committee, urged for an open session. 
 
 Comey's testimony "allowed me to ask the former director about the attorney general's actions before and after his recusal, whether the attorney general's role in firing Comey violated that recusal, and whether the attorney general knew about the concerns related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn," Wyden wrote to committee leaders on Sunday. 
 
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 Wyden added, "The American people also deserve to hear the attorney general's answers to these questions, as well as others related to his meetings with the Russians and his failure to disclose those meetings to the Senate Judiciary Committee." 
 
 Sessions recused himself March 2 from the Justice Department's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. His senior role in Trump’s presidential campaign — and the revelation earlier this year that he failed to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador during his confirmation hearings — led to his decision to step aside from any federal probes involving the Trump campaign. 
 
 But testimony last week from Comey thrust Sessions again into the spotlight. Comey said he alerted Sessions to what he felt was inappropriate pressure from Trump on investigatory matters. Comey also said he wasn’t sure whether Sessions played a role in Trump’s decision to abruptly fire him on May 9. 
 
 “I think it is a reasonable question," Comey testified last week. "If, as the president said, I was fired because of the Russia investigation, why was the attorney general involved in that chain? I don't know. So I don't have an answer for the question." ||||| The nation’s top intelligence official told associates in March that President Trump asked him if he could intervene with then-FBI Director James B. Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn in its Russia probe, according to officials. 
 
 On March 22, less than a week after being confirmed by the Senate, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats attended a briefing at the White House together with officials from several government agencies. As the briefing was wrapping up, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. 
 
 The president then started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey’s handling of it, said officials familiar with the account Coats gave to associates. Two days earlier, Comey had confirmed in a congressional hearing that the bureau was probing whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 race. 
 
 [Inside Trump’s anger and impatience — and his sudden decision to fire Comey] 
 
 After the encounter, Coats discussed the conversation with other officials and decided that intervening with Comey as Trump had suggested would be inappropriate, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters. 
 
 The events involving Coats show the president went further than just asking intelligence officials to deny publicly the existence of any evidence showing collusion during the 2016 election, as The Washington Post reported in May. The interaction with Coats indicates that Trump aimed to enlist top officials to have Comey curtail the bureau’s probe. 
 
 [Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence] 
 
 Coats will testify on Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Lawmakers on the panel said they would press him for information about his interactions with the president regarding the FBI investigation. 
 
 The question of whether the president obstructed the Russia investigation is expected to take center stage this week with Comey’s highly anticipated testimony on the Hill on Thursday. Comey associates say that before the director was fired in May, the president had asked him to drop the investigation into Flynn, and Comey refused. 
 
 Brian P. Hale, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), declined to comment on whether Trump asked Coats to intervene with Comey regarding the Flynn investigation. Hale said in a statement: “Director Coats does not discuss his private conversations with the President. However, he has never felt pressured by the President or anyone else in the Administration to influence any intelligence matters or ongoing investigations.” 
 
 A spokesman for Pompeo declined to comment on the closed-door discussions. The White House referred questions to outside lawyers, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Trump has repeatedly denied any coordination took place between his campaign and the Russian government, which, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, stole emails embarrassing to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and leaked them to undermine her campaign. 
 
 Flynn had served as an enthusiastic surrogate for Trump during the campaign and then was fired after just 24 days as national security adviser over revelations he misrepresented his discussions with the Russian ambassador to the United States. 
 
 [Flynn’s swift downfall: From a phone call to a forced resignation] 
 
 The incidents suggest that Trump may not have appreciated the traditional barriers meant to insulate the intelligence agencies from politics. 
 
 Though the ODNI oversees other intelligence agencies, the FBI director operates independently on many matters. For example, Comey kept James R. Clapper Jr., Coats’s predecessor in the Obama administration, in the dark about the bureau’s investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. 
 
 A day or two after the March 22 meeting, the president followed up with a phone call to Coats, according to officials familiar with the discussions. In the call, Trump asked Coats to issue a public statement denying the existence of any evidence of coordination between his campaign and the Russian government. Again, Coats decided not to act on the request. 
 
 Trump similarly approached Adm. Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, to ask him to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of coordination, as The Post previously reported, according to current and former officials. Like Coats, Rogers refused to comply with the president’s request. 
 
 Trump announced in January that he was nominating Coats to serve as director of national intelligence, responsible for overseeing U.S. intelligence agencies and for briefing the president on global developments. 
 
 In February, as tensions flared between intelligence agencies and the White House over Russia and other issues, some of Trump’s advisers floated the idea of appointing a New York billionaire, Stephen A. Feinberg, to undertake a review of the ODNI. Coats, who was preparing for his confirmation hearing, felt blindsided, officials said. 
 
 The White House backed away from the idea of naming Feinberg after Coats, members of the intelligence community and Congress raised objections. 
 
 Officials say Trump’s advisers have since revived their proposal to appoint Feinberg to a senior position, possibly to review the roles of the ODNI and other intelligence agencies. 
 
 Some officials said they viewed the prospective appointment of Feinberg as an effort by White House officials to put pressure on intelligence agencies to close ranks with the White House. 
 
 In an appearance last month before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Coats refused to provide details about his interactions with Trump. 
 
 But he indicated that he would cooperate with the Russia probe now being led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Under questioning by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Coats said that if asked, he would provide details of his conversations with Trump to Mueller. 
 
 Coats also said that if he is called before an investigative committee, such as the Senate Intelligence Committee, “I certainly will provide them with what I know and what I don’t know.” He said the Trump administration had not directed the ODNI to withhold information from members of Congress conducting oversight. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 All eyes are on Comey this Thursday — again 
 
 Legal analysts: Trump might have obstructed justice, if Comey’s allegation is true 
 
 Putin ridicules allegations of collusion between Trump aides and Russian officials ||||| Related: Coats Faces Senate Amid New Claims of Trump Interference 
 
 But Rogers declined to directly address what the president asked of him, as did Coats. 
 
 "I have never felt pressured to intervene or interfere in any way with shaping intelligence in a political way or intervene in an investigation," Coats said. 
 
 Warner responded, "You may not have felt pressured, but if he is even asking, to me that is a very relevant piece of information. At some point these facts have to come out." 
 
 Coats declined to address a Washington Post report Tuesday that Trump urged him to ask FBI Director James Comey to back off the Russia investigation. 
 
 "At some point these facts have to come out." "At some point these facts have to come out." 
 
 He told Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., that he hoped to discuss it in a closed hearing, out of public view. 
 
 NBC News has reported that Trump asked Coats and Rogers on separate occasions to state that they had seen no evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia. Both men believed the request was inappropriate, and Trump's conversation with Rogers was documented in a memo, a former senior intelligence official said. 
 
 Lawmakers took their refusal to comment as confirmation that such conversations did indeed take place. 
 
 "If you could say" the reports weren't true, "you would say that," said Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island. 
 
 The hearing came a day ahead of what promises to be a dramatic day of testimony before the same committee by former FBI Director James Comey, who will discuss what he felt were inappropriate requests made to him by Trump, sources close to him say. 
 
 As Wednesday's hearing proceeded, Democrats appeared to grow increasingly frustrated and angry about refusal by the two intelligence officials to answer questions about the conversations with the president. 
 
 Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats, asked Rogers whether he was invoking executive privilege, a legal doctrine that shields some presidential conversations from disclosure. He said he was not. 
 
 (L-R) Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on June 7. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images 
 
 "Then why are you not answering the question?" King asked. 
 
 "Because I feel it is inappropriate, Senator," Rogers replied. 
 
 "What you feel is not relevant, Admiral, what you feel isn't the answer," King interjected. 
 
 Rogers said he stood by his refusal, but he did not mean it in "a contentious way." 
 
 "Well I do mean that in contentious way," King replied. 
 
 Later in the hearing, Republican Sen. McCain said it would be "more than disturbing, obviously. If it's true that the president of the United States is trying to get the director of national intelligence and others to abandon the investigation into Russian involvement, it's pretty serious." 
 
 "What you feel is not relevant, Admiral, what you feel isn't the answer." "What you feel is not relevant, Admiral, what you feel isn't the answer." 
 
 Senators also expressed frustration with FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe, who refused to discuss conversatiions he had with former director James Comey about Comey's interactions with Trump. 
 
 McCabe said he couldn't discuss anything that could fall within the purview of the special counsel's investigation. 
 
 "You don't think the American people deserve an answer to that?" asked Sen. Martin Heinrich, D.-New Mexico, who pointed out that Trump discussed the firing of Comey in an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt. 
 
 Senators and witnesses also spent considerable time discussing the stated purpose of the hearing, reauthorization of a key surveillance law known as Section 702. All of the officials and many of the senators expressed support for the reauthorization, though some, including King, suggested that some new privacy protections would be needed. 
 
 Section 702 was passed as part of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, when Congress decided to essentially legalize what had been known as the warrantless wiretapping program. 
 
 The provision allows the U.S. to eavesdrop on the communications of foreigners outside the U.S. even when those communications traverse the U.S., including on networks run by big American tech companies, something that previously required a FISA warrant. In the process of targeting foreigners, the NSA sweeps in the communications of many Americans who are in communication with those foreigners. 
 
 Then-Sen. Barack Obama voted for the provision, much to the chagrin of civil liberties activists who saw it as compromising the Fourth Amendment's protections against unfettered government searches. 
 
 In 2013, leaker Edward Snowden exposed how the law was being used. Under the PRISM program, the government was ordering U.S. tech companies to turn over huge swaths of data. The targets were foreigners, but the data of many Americans was also being captured. 
 
 However, the program was considered so valuable by counterterrorism officials and their elected overseers that the Snowden disclosures resulted in no substantial changes to it. That's in contrast with the other major disclosure, the collecting of U.S. domestic calling records under Section 215 of the 2008 act. That program, which wasn't particularly useful, was completely overhauled in the wake of Snowden. 
 
 But Section 702 survived unscathed until recently, when the government announced that it would no longer collect American-to-American communications about a foreign intelligence target. 
 
 Section 702 must be reauthorized by the end of this year by Congress, or it expires. 
 
 Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats appears before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, June 7. Alex Brandon / AP 
 
 Many lawmakers have growing misgivings about it. The controversy over "unmasking" the names of Americans in intelligence reports, which many officials believe is bogus, has fueled those concerns. Republicans are increasingly concerned about whether the privacy of Americans is being sufficiently protected. 
 
 One of the main things that bothers civil libertarians about how 702 is used is that once data on Americans is collected and deemed relevant intelligence, it is stored for five years, and the FBI can search it for nearly any reason without a warrant. 
 
 That means information collected without a warrant, and queries without a warrant, can be used to prosecute an American. 
 
 "It strikes me as bootstrapping to say we collected it legally under 702 and then we can go look at these American persons," King said during the hearing. "I believe that the Fourth Amendment imposes a warrant requirement." 
 
 But when a presidential commission recommended that Obama change that provision, he declined. The FBI told him the warrantless searches were extremely useful. 
 
 Now, a coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats has banded together to seek to hold up reauthorization as it presses for more privacy protections. 
 
 Related: Ex-CIA Director: 'Interactions' Between Trump Campaign and Russia 
 
 If the provision expires, it would cause huge problems for the intelligence agencies that rely on it to hunt terrorists and spy on China and Russia, the intelligence officials told lawmakers. 
 
 The federal Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded in 2014 that Section 702 data has led to "well over 100 arrests on terrorism-related offenses," and stopped about 15 plots in the U.S. and 40 in other countries. 
 
 More than a quarter of the NSA's reports about international terrorism include information based in whole or in part on Section 702, the board said. ||||| White House press secretary Sean Spicer gets a note from a staff member during the daily press briefing at the White House, Tuesday, June 6, 2017, in Washington. Spicer discussed Trump's tweets, former... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — With fired FBI Director James Comey's highly anticipated congressional testimony just a day away, the White House and its allies are scrambling for ways to offset potential damage. 
 
 Asked Tuesday about the testimony, President Donald Trump was tight-lipped: "I wish him luck," he told reporters. 
 
 Comey's testimony Thursday before the Senate intelligence committee could expose new details regarding his discussions with Trump about the federal investigation into Russia's election meddling. 
 
 Comey could also bring up other aspects of his dealings with the Trump administration. On Tuesday evening a person familiar with the situation said Comey had told Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he did not want to be left alone with Trump. 
 
 The person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the comment was made because of concerns Comey had about Trump. 
 
 It was not immediately clear when the conversation occurred. But The New York Times, which first reported the interaction with Sessions, said it came after Trump had asked Comey in February to end an FBI investigation into Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. 
 
 Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior declined to comment. He said Sessions "doesn't believe it's appropriate to respond to media inquiries on matters that may be related to ongoing investigations." 
 
 Trump's White House and its allies are crafting a strategy aimed at undermining Comey's credibility. Both White House officials and an outside group that backs Trump plan to hammer Comey in the coming days for misstatements he made about Democrat Hillary Clinton's emails during his last appearance on Capitol Hill. 
 
 An ad created by the pro-Trump Great America Alliance — a nonprofit "issues" group that isn't required to disclose its donors — casts Comey as a "showboat" who was "consumed with election meddling" instead of focusing on combating terrorism. The 30-second spot is slated to run digitally on Wednesday and appear the next day on CNN and Fox News. 
 
 The Republican National Committee has been preparing talking points ahead of the hearing, which will be aired live on multiple TV outlets. An RNC research email Monday issued a challenge to the lawmakers who will question Comey. There's bipartisan agreement, the email says, that Comey "needs to answer a simple question about his conversations with President Trump: If you were so concerned, why didn't you act on it or notify Congress?" 
 
 Comey's testimony marks his first public comments since he was abruptly ousted by Trump on May 9. Since then, Trump and Comey allies have traded competing narratives about their interactions. The president asserted that Comey told him three times that he was not personally under investigation, while the former director's associates allege Trump asked Comey if he could back off an investigation into Michael Flynn, who was fired as national security adviser because he misled the White House about his ties to Russia. 
 
 Democrats have accused Trump of firing Comey to upend the FBI's Russia probe, which focused in large part on whether campaign aides coordinated with Moscow to hack Democratic groups during the election. Days after Comey's firing, the Justice Department appointed a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, to oversee the federal investigation. 
 
 The new revelation about Comey's uneasiness with Trump brings to mind a posting last month by Comey friend Benjamin Wittes on his Lawfare blog, in which he said Comey "saw it as an ongoing task on his part to protect the rest of the Bureau from improper contacts and interferences from a group of people he did not regard as honorable." 
 
 Despite the mounting legal questions now shadowing the White House, Trump has needled Comey publicly. In a tweet days after the firing, he appeared to warn Comey that he might have recordings of their private discussions, something the White House has neither confirmed nor denied. 
 
 White House officials appear eager to keep the president away from television and Twitter Thursday, though those efforts rarely succeed. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the president plans to attend an infrastructure summit in the morning, then address the Faith and Freedom Coalition's "Road to Majority" conference at 12:30 p.m. 
 
 "The president's got a full day on Thursday," Spicer said. 
 
 The White House had hoped to set up a "war room" stocked with Trump allies and top-flight lawyers to combat questions about the FBI and congressional investigations into possible ties between the campaign and Russia. However, that effort has largely stalled, both because of a lack of decision-making in the West Wing and concerns among some potential recruits about joining a White House under the cloud of investigation. 
 
 "If there isn't a strategy, a coherent, effective one, this is really going to put us all behind the eight ball. We need to start fighting back. And so far, I don't see a lot of fight," said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign aide. 
 
 Still, Trump supporters say they are willing to step in to help the White House deflect any accusations from Comey. 
 
 "If we feel he crosses a line, we'll fire back," said Ed Rollins, chief strategist of Great America PAC, the political arm of the group airing the Comey ad. 
 
 __ 
 
 Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report. 
 
 __ 
 
 Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Julie Bykowicz at http://twitter.com/bykowicz
– With James Comey's much-anticipated testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee approaching, insiders say President Trump is getting ready for a fight. The former FBI chief's testimony begins Thursday morning, and Trump associates say the president is likely to be watching closely and tweeting furiously, reports the Washington Post, which describes the upcoming Senate proceeding as a "political Super Bowl." "He's not going to take an attack by James Comey laying down," says Trump friend Roger Stone. "Trump is a fighter, he's a brawler, and he's the best counterpuncher in American politics." In other developments: Sources tell the New York Times that, in a sign of how much Comey distrusted Trump, he told Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he didn't want to be left alone with the president again following a private meeting. Comey did not tell Sessions, however, that Trump had asked him to drop the investigation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, the sources say. The hearing on alleged Russian meddling in the election opens Wednesday, and officials such as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are expected to face questions about Trump's firing of Comey, among other issues, reports Reuters. Sources tell the Washington Post that after a briefing in March, Trump asked Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats if he could intervene with Comey to have the investigation of Flynn dropped. Coats, the nation's top intelligence official, discussed the request with other officials and decided it was inappropriate, the sources say. The AP reports that with Comey's testimony widely expected to reveal damaging new details about Trump's involvement with the Russia investigation, the White House and its allies are already trying to push back. The pro-Trump Great America Alliance group is airing an ad describing Comey as a "showboat" who was so obsessed with the Russia issue he failed to concentrate on fighting terrorism. Friends of Comey tell Politico that he's likely to stick to describing his interactions with Trump instead of discussing the wider Russia investigation with the Senate panel. Special counsel Robert Mueller is now leading a probe into the alleged election interference, and associates say Comey has already discussed his testimony with Mueller. Trump has declined to use executive privilege to try to stop Comey testifying. When asked about the testimony on Tuesday, the president said: "I wish him luck."