TRUMP SAYS NO TAPE OF TALK WITH COMEY
Democrat senator says it’s evidence president ‘making things up’
WASHINGTON— US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he does not have recordings of his private meetings with fired FBI director James Comey drawing fire from the top Democrat in the Senate Intelligence Committee who said Trump’s contradicting tweets about the tapes showed his “willingness to just kind of make things up.”
“This administration never ceases to amaze me,” said Sen. Mark Warner, the highest ranking Democrat in the intelligence committee.
“It’s remarkable the president was so flippant to make his original tweet and then frankly stonewall the media and the country for weeks,” said Warner.
“I don’t know how this serves the country’s interests,” he said. “I think in many ways it was maybe an attempt to try to intimidate Jim Comey, which obviously he didn’t,” he added.
Trump’s belated admission did little to quell allegations that he sought to stifle investigations into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russian interference in last year’s election.
“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.
New twist
The admission threw a new twist into allegations, fed by Comey’s own claims, that Trump wanted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to pull back on its probe into the Russia scandal.
Those accusations were believed to now be part of an independent justice department probe into possible illegal obstruction of justice by the president.
Trump’s tweet came after weeks of challenges to the White House to prove the assertion that he might have recordings of his conversations with the former FBI chief, whom he fired on May 9.
Facing a slew of criticism for sacking the man investigating the Russia scandal, Trump warned Comey there could be retribution if he revealed anything of their private conversations.
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump tweeted on May 12.
That claim quickly raised concerns that Trump, like some US presidents in the past, was secretly recording all of his conversations in the White House.
And it took on more weight when Comey leaked out his own private notes of several discussions with Trump, in which he described the president as improperly pressuring him over the Russia probe.
In a June 8 hearing in Congress, Comey described several meetings with Trump and said he in fact hoped the tapes existed as they would support his account of their discussions.
“I’ve seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Democrats had demanded Trump come up with the tapes.
THIS ADMINISTRATION NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME