Experts: If Trump tapes exist, they will go public
NEW YORK — For the first time since an Oval Office taping system was removed by President Richard Nixon's chief of staff nearly 44 years ago, a president has hinted that White House conversations might again be secretly recorded. If so, President Donald Trump is following a problematic precedent.
While several presidents secretly recorded conversations without problems, the practice is most associated with Nixon. His recordings became prime evidence during the Watergate investigation that ultimately led to his resignation. Sooner or later, recordings are likely to become public.
"The lesson for presidents since Nixon was, do not tape your Oval Office conversations," said Timothy Naftali, a professor at New York University and the first federal director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California. "It can only get you in trouble."
Trump tweeted Friday that former FBI Director James Comey "better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press."
The extraordinary if ambiguous tweet came three days after Trump fired Comey, who was overseeing the bureau's investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election and whether anyone in Trump's campaign was involved.
Trump has rejected the probe as "fake news," and claimed Comey assured him at a dinner and in two phone calls that he wasn't under investigation. Comey hasn't spoken publicly since he was fired, but an associate said Trump's claims are puzzling, adding that Trump sought a loyalty pledge from Comey during the Jan. 27 White House dinner, which the exdirector declined to give.
That and similar reports apparently led to Trump's tweet.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer didn't comment when asked whether Trump recorded Comey or if recording equipment exists in the Oval Office.
Under a post-Watergate law, the Presidential Records Act, recordings made by presidents belong to the people and can eventually be made public. Destroying them would be a crime.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, has already seized on the tweet and asked that Trump give Congress any recordings of conversations with Comey.