Trump admits he doesn't have 'tapes' of his conversations with James Comey
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President Donald Trump said in two Thursday tweets that he didn't have tapes of his conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey.
"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 wrote in the tweets.
Bloomberg on Thursday wrote that a person familiar with the situation said "Trump raised the possibility of tapes in a strategic fashion to ensure that Comey told the truth."
The controversy surrounding the tapes began shortly after Trump's stunning dismissal of Comey in early May. The president tweeted days later that Comey had "better hope that there are no 'tapes'" of their conversations "before he starts leaking to the press!"
That tweet in turn led Comey to do just that. He testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month that he instructed a good friend to leak information on memos he had written that documented his conversations with the president. Comey said he made the move because he felt the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling in last year's election had reached a point at which a special counsel should be appointed. Soon after the memos' contents were leaked, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel after to oversee the Russia investigation.
Comey also said in his testimony that he hoped Trump would produce any tapes of their private conversations if he had them.
During a press conference alongside Romanian President Klaus Iohannis earlier this month, Trump said on three occasions that the media would soon know about whether tapes existed.
"Well, I'll tell you about that maybe sometime in the very near future," he said, later adding that he was "not hinting anything" about whether there were any tape-recorded conversations.
"I will tell you about it over a fairly short period of time," he said. "You're going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer."
The end of that sentence seemed to suggest that tapes did not exist.
In recent days, the White House told reporters that an answer on the tapes would come this week. Trump's tweets coincided with a deadline for a request from the House Intelligence Committee, which also is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The committee sent a letter to the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, on June 9 requesting information on any tapes and for copies to be turned over if they did exist by June 23, which is Friday.
During Thursday's press briefing, the White House deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said the original "tapes" tweet from Trump "was more about raising the question of doubt in general."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from Business Insider.