In a tweet blasted out early on Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump claimed he didn’t record his private conversations with former FBI director James Comey, adding that if such tapes do exist, he doesn’t have them.
With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017
...whether there are "tapes" or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017
The tweet comes after weeks of speculation over whether or not Trump had in fact recorded his private conversations with Comey – conversations that became the center of a highly-publicized Senate Intelligence Committee hearing into the former FBI director’s firing earlier this month.
Shortly after firing Comey last month, Trump had teased the possibility that he’d recorded the pair’s conversations, just one day after Comey had his friend leak memos he’d been keeping of his conversations with the president. In the memos, Comey claimed Trump had asked him for a pledge of loyalty, adding the president had also asked Comey to drop the FBI’s investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Trump and his team denied both accusations.
"James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" Trump had tweeted at the time.
That single tweet launched a firestorm of controversy both in the media and in Congress, as the left raged over the possibility that Trump had secretly recorded the pair’s conversations.
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