US lawmakers ask Trump to turn over any Comey tapes

WASHINGTON — US lawmakers on Sunday called on President Donald Trump to turn over any tapes of conversations with fired FBI chief James Comey, potentially setting up a showdown with the White House as Democrats considered a boycott of the vote on Comey’s replacement.

In a highly unusual move, Trump last week appeared to suggest that he might have tapes of conversations with Comeyandwarnedthe former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation against talking to the media. Trump and a White House spokesman declined to confirm or deny whether such tapes exist.

Republican Senator Lindsey GrahamofSouthCarolina said the White House must “clear the air” about whether there are any taped conversations.

“You can’t be cute about tapes. If there are any tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned over,” Graham said.

Trump sparked a political firestormwhenhefiredComey last week. The FBI has been investigating alleged Russian meddling in the US election and possible ties betweenMoscow and the Trump campaign.

Democrats have accused Trumpof attempting tothwart the FBI’sprobeandhave called for some type of independent inquiry into the matter.

Trump has said he removed Comey because he was not doing a good job and that Comey had lost the support of FBI employees.

Trump tweeted on Friday that “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

If there are recordings, Republican Senator Mike Lee ofUtah said itwas“inevitable” that they would be subpoenaed and the White House would have to release them.