Donald Trump: No Comey 'tapes' - at least not by me

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His admission, on Twitter Thursday that he did not secretly record his conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey - after earlier raising the possibility that he did - capped a six-week charade that damaged his presidency and cast doubt on his personal credibility.

That claim quickly raised concerns that Trump, like some United States presidents in the past, was secretly recording all of his conversations in the White House.

Facing a slew of criticism for sacking the man investigating the Russian Federation scandal, Trump warned Comey there could be retribution if he revealed anything of their private conversations.

There had been speculation that Trump did have tapes of some of his meetings with Comey because he tweeted in May that Comey "better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"

Mueller's team and the panel, along with several other congressional committees, are probing alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

"With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea..." the president tweeted.

Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month that he had made memos of conversations with the president immediately after they took place.

Following that testimony, Mr Trump said he would respond on whether there were recordings made but said: "Oh, you're going to be very disappointed, don't worry".

Text of Senate GOP health care bill released
It was the first time many people were able to see it, though Republicans had been briefed on the plan behind closed doors. However, they said they were "open to negotiation and obtaining more information".

"If you look at the president's tweet, he said very clearly quote - "wiretapping" - end quote", Spicer said in a press conference on March 13.

House Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Adam Schiff on Thursday threw cold water on President Donald Trump's tweets of having no recordings of his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey and demanded formal confirmation from the White House by Friday.

"Was this an effort to intimidate James B. Comey, was this an effort to silence James B. Comey?" he said.

"I think he was in his way instinctively trying to rattle Comey", former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a longtime Trump confidant, has said. "He's not a professional politician". The House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian meddling in the presidential election has sought information on whether the tapes exist.

Trump: Over a fairly short period of time. The tapes, produced between 1971 and 1973, helped doom the Nixon administration, leading to the president's resignation over the Watergate scandal.

Under a law created after Watergate, all presidential recordings are public property, and destroying them would be a crime.

On May 12, a day after details of a one-on-one dinner he had with Comey were reported by the New York Times, Trump issued an apparent threat to the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director, whom he had recently fired. In that meeting, according to the memo, Trump told Comey he hoped he would let the Flynn investigation go. The Kremlin has denied USA intelligence agencies' conclusion that Moscow tried to tilt the election campaign in Trump's favor, using such means as hacking into the emails of senior Democrats.

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