FBI director James B. Comey, on Wednesday sharply defended his rationale for notifying Congress about new emails related to the Hilary Clinton investigation less than two weeks before Election Day, saying any suggestion that he had affected the vote’s outcome made him “mildly nauseous.”

Comey’s comments were his first public explanation about his actions, which foiled the presidential campaign in its final days. He said he went public on Oct. 28 because he believed his agents had possibly found emails that could provide insight into Mrs. Clinton’s reasons for using a private email server and change the outcome of the investigation. Mr. Comey said that failing to inform Congress would have a required an “act of concealment.” “Concealment in my view would have been catastrophic,” he said.

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Unlike the House Intelligence Committee hearing in March where Comey took the extraordinary step of confirming there was an investigation into Russian meddling in the election, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday was a more routine congressional oversight procedure.

The top Republican and the top Democrat on the committee made clear that they wanted answers from Comey on a number of issues, including Mrs. Clinton’s emails, the Russia investigation, leaks to the news media and the use of wiretapping as an investigative tool. “We need the F.B.I. to be accountable because we need the F.B.I. to effective,” said  Republican of Iowa and the chairman of the committee, Senator Charles Grassley.