Trump tape tease ends with a tweet
President hinted six weeks ago conversations with Comey had been recorded
WASHINGTON— He has no tapes.
U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday that he did not record his White House conversations with former FBI director James Comey, revealing that he was bluffing in May when he mentioned the possibility of tapes in a Twitter post.
“With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings,” Trump said on Twitter.
Trump’s admission amounts to a rare public concession that his words were not based in fact. He will now face questions about why he appeared to threaten Comey with the prospect of imaginary recordings.
“‘Bluff’ is a generous term for it . . . sharper words also come to mind,” Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter.
Trump and his spokespeople had repeatedly refused to respond when asked if recordings existed. He provided the answer a day before a deadline set by the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Intelligence Committee.
His May12 threat set off a damaging chain of events. Comey said the tweet made him feel compelled to disclose his own memos of their exchanges in the hope that he could prompt the appointment of a special counsel. A special counsel, Robert Mueller, was indeed appointed, and Mueller appears to be investigating the possibility that Trump committed obstruction of justice.
Trump posted the fateful tweet three days after he fired Comey. He wrote on Twitter: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
He appeared to be responding to a New York Times article that included an account of a private dinner the two men had in January. The sources were anonymous, but Comey later said he had passed details of his exchanges with Trump to his friends.
Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, told The Associated Press that Trump was “instinctively trying to rattle Comey.”
“He’s not a professional politician. He doesn’t come back and think about Nixon and Watergate. His instinct is: ‘I’ll out-bluff you,’ ” Gingrich said.
The House committee had asked White House counsel Don McGahn in early June to say by Friday whether any tapes existed. The committee’s top Democrat said Wednesday that they would have considered issuing subpoenas if Trump refused to respond to the letter.
Comey has said he was always unfazed by the possibility of recordings. During the congressional testimony in which Comey accused Trump of improperly pressuring him to end the FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, he said, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”
Comey provided detailed accounts of five of his conversations with Trump. He told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he kept written records of their interactions because he did not trust the president to tell the truth about them.
Trump has accused Comey of lying. Tapes could have assisted the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller, whom the Washington Post says is now probing the question of whether Trump’s behaviour toward Comey constituted obstruction of justice.
No president since Richard Nixon is thought to have employed a taping system. Nixon’s system recorded him having incriminating conversations about the Watergate scandal.