SECRET memos that James Comey recorded from his interactions with US President Donald Trump have been released to reveal more eye-opening happenings behind the scenes at the White House.

The 15 pages of documents, obtained by The Associated Press, contain new details about a series of interactions that Comey had with Trump in the weeks before his May 2017 firing.

It includes revelations from a conversation the pair had about a leaked phone call President Trump had with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in February last year.

On page nine of the published documents, Comey wrote: “the President talked about the leak of the “read-outs” from his calls with Australia and Mexico, explaining that the leaks couldn’t have come from the “other side” and he understood we were helping look into that”.

Comey also wrote he would follow up the conversation “to find out what was going on”.

In the days after the call The Washington Post revealed President Trump hung up on Mr Turnbull after 25 minutes, when their call was meant to be an hour long.

President Trump reportedly yelled at Mr Turnbull and criticised him over his refugee agreement formerly made with President Barack Obama, and boasted about his electoral college win.

“This was the worst call by far,” Trump was quoted as saying after making a number of calls to world leaders that day.

“This is the worst deal ever.”

The President also reportedly complained that he was “going to get killed” politically and accused Australia of seeking to export the “next Boston bombers”.

The memos also included details of a White House dinner at which Comey says Trump asked him for his loyalty, and a meeting the following month in which he says the president asked him to end an investigation into his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, something Trump has denied.

Trump told Comey that he had serious concerns about the judgment of Flynn, according to memos maintained by Comey.

According to one memo, Trump complained about Flynn at a private January 2017 dinner with Comey, saying “the guy has serious judgment issues”. He then blamed Flynn for a delay in returning the congratulatory call of an international leader.

“I did not comment at any point during this topic and there was no mention or acknowledgment of any FBI interest in or contact with General Flynn,” Comey wrote.

Flynn was fired a month later after White House officials said he had misled about his Russian contacts during the transition period.

In a separate memo, Comey says Trump cleared the Oval Office of other officials, encouraged him to let the investigation into Flynn go and called him a good guy.

In a Senate hearing in June, Comey told Congress, “I knew there might come a day when I would need a record of what had happened, not just to defend myself, but to defend the FBI and our integrity as an institution and the independence of our investigative function.”

The memos were provided to Congress today as House Republicans escalated criticism of the department, threatening to subpoena the documents and questioning officials. In a letter sent to three Republican House committee chairmen on Thursday evening (local time), Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote that the department was sending a classified version of the memos and an unclassified version. The department released Boyd’s letter publicly but did not release the memos.

Justice officials had allowed some lawmakers to view the memos but had never provided copies to Congress. Boyd wrote that the department had also provided the memos to several Senate committees.

Comey is on a publicity tour to promote his new book, A Higher Loyalty.

He revealed last year that he had written the memos after conversations with Trump. Details from some memos were made public in media accounts in the days after he was fired. At the Senate hearing, Comey detailed his conversations with Trump. One Comey memo recounts a February request from Trump, during a private meeting in the Oval Office, that Comey end an investigation into Flynn.

Boyd wrote in the letter that the department “consulted the relevant parties” and concluded that releasing the memos would not adversely affect any ongoing investigations.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign as well as possible obstruction of justice by the president.

Boyd said the decision to allow the release of the memos “does not alter the department’s traditional obligation to protect from public disclosure witness statements and other documents obtained during an ongoing investigation.”

Comey said in an interview on Thursday with CNN that he’s “fine” with the Justice Department turning his memos over to Congress.

“I think what folks will see if they get to see the memos is I’ve been consistent since the very beginning, right after my encounters with President Trump, and I’m consistent in the book and tried to be transparent in the book as well,” he said.

Last week, the GOP chairmen of three House committees demanded the memos by Monday. The Justice Department asked for more time, and the lawmakers agreed.