Former FBI Director James Comey will tell a Senate committee on Friday morning (AEST) that President Donald Trump told him “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty’’ in a White House conversation.

In written remarks submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr Comey also confirmed the President asked him to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s links to Russia.

In the statement, posted online by the Senate committee on Thursday morning (AEST), Mr Comey said Trump told him “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty” during their first dinner in January.

The deposed law enforcement chief said; “I didn’t move, speak or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed.”

Mr Comey said he told Mr Trump “you will always get honesty from me.” He said the President responded, “that’s what I want. Honest loyalty”.

Mr Comey, who was sensationally fired by Mr Trump last month, said he held nine separate face-to-face and phone conversations with the President.

He is scheduled to give his testimony and be questioned by the Senate committee on Thursday US time.

In the statement Mr Comey said President Trump asked him about Mr Flynn and whether he could “see your way clear to letting this go”.

“He then said, ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go’,” the written submission states.

“I replied only that ‘he is a good guy.’ (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would ‘let this go.'”

New FBI boss nominated

The release of Mr Comey’s testimony comes as President Trump announced his will  criminal defence lawyer Christopher Wray as the new FBI director.

Mr Trump made the announcement on Twitter, saying Wray was “man of impeccable credentials.”

I will be nominating Christopher A. Wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new Director of the FBI. Details to follow.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2017

The appointment will need to be confirmed by the Senate, which will examine Mr Wray’s credentials and any links to Mr Trump.

Mr Wray, a partner at law firm King & Spalding, led the Justice Department’s Criminal Division from 2003 to 2005

He also oversaw former president George W Bush’s corporate fraud task force and oversaw the Enron Task Force.

More recently, he served as attorney for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Trump ally.