Former FBI director James Comey will feature prominently in the history of 21st century America.

He is viewed by many as the man who helped secure Donald Trump the election through his investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, despite subsequently being fired by Trump himself.

He joined Matt in studio to discuss his book, A Higher Loyalty, and how he feels about the events now.

Comey says he understands that Hillary Clinton is "clearly deeply hurt" by what happened, but he maintains that he wasn't trying to hurt or help her: "I was trying to do the right thing."

He describes the "speak or conceal" dilemma he faced concerning the investigation.

"I believed it would be catastrophic to mislead the American people, but even if I chose the other option, they were going to find out that we had restarted the investigation."

"It's a nightmare: you have to choose between the bad outcome and the terrible outcome, and we chose the bad outcome."

Comey says he feels badly about potentially handing the election to Trump, but "we were not on anybody's team."

"The whole thing has made me sick in my stomach and has given me a feeling of unease, but I'm not haunted by it. We made the decisions with the right goals in mind."

Comey first met Donald Trump when he was president-elect and was struck by the similarity between his "leadership culture" and that of Mafia bosses.

He contrasts Trump's distant approach in meetings with George Bush and Barack Obama, both of whom would try to relax whoever they were talking to and had a sense of humour. Comey says he never saw Trump laugh.

Unlike many others, he doesn't question Trump's sanity, but thinks his judgement leaves a lot to be desired.

"I think he is of reasonable intelligence, but his judgement is deeply impaired by his hunger for affirmation."

Comey's book also deals with a chilling experience he had at the age of 16, when he and his brother were held at gunpoint in their home by a serial rapist. He thinks this probably helped steer him towards a career in law enforcement.

"It gave me a sense that life is really precious, so a lot of the things we worry about normally have never bothered me because I have this sense that I'm just lucky to be alive."

Comey says that if he hadn't been fired by Trump, he would have stayed in the job. But being part of history is not something he wants.

"I never wanted to be a celebrity. I hope I will fade away and people won't recognise me in airports. I'd rather not have been, but I know I made the decisions for the right reasons, and there's peace in that."

To catch the full chat press the play button on the image on the top of the screen