I don’t have any Comey tapes, admits Trump
Donald Trump has admitted he did not record conversations with James Comey, the man he sacked as FBI director, and has no “tapes” of their encounters. The president made the admission six weeks after suggesting he may have tapes of a White House dinner and a series of phone calls.
PRESIDENT Donald Trump admitted he did not record conversations with James Comey, the man he sacked as FBI director, and has no “tapes” of their encounters.
The president’s announcement came six weeks after suggesting he may have made tapes of a private dinner at the White House and a series of phone calls between the two men.
Mr Comey, who has given evidence that the tweet prompted him to leak memos about his private conversations with the president, has maintained that Mr Trump asked for a pledge of loyalty from him at the dinner and directed him to drop an FBI investigation into former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Mr Trump, who disputed that version, said in a tweet last month that “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
Yesterday Mr Trump said the tapes did not exist, saying: “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.”
Mr Trump fired Mr Comey, who was leading an investigation into whether there were contacts between the president’s campaign and Russian officials, on May 9. In a New York Times report, associates of Mr Comey recounted his version of the dinner at the White House in January. They claimed Mr Comey declined to make a pledge of loyalty and instead offered to be “honest”. It was also claimed Mr Trump told Mr Comey he “hoped” the FBI director could “let go” of the Flynn investigation.
At a congressional hearing, Mr Comey said he hoped the president had recorded their conversations because it would back up his account.
More weight may now be given to the contemporaneous notes of the conversations made by Mr Comey.
It came as two US intelligence officials claimed Mr Trump had suggested they make public statements saying there was no collusion between his election campaign and Russia, CNN reported. Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and Admiral Mike Rogers, a National Security Agency director, described the interactions with the president as “odd and uncomfortable”.
Under a post-watergate law, recordings made by presidents belong to the people and can eventually be made public, and destroying them would be a crime.
Sarah Sanders, a White House spokesman, said the president made the announcement because the House Intelligence Committee said it wanted any tapes relating to Mr Comey by today.