Washington: President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he never made recordings of his private conversations with former FBI director James Comey, ending a month-old guessing game that began with a cryptic tweet that caught his administration in more controversy.
“With all the recent electronic surveillance, interceptions, unmasking and illegal filing of information,” Trump said in his latest tweets, “he has no idea” whether there are “tapes” or recordings of the two men’s conversations. But he proclaimed that “he did not, and does not have, such recordings.”
That left open the possibility that the recordings were made without his knowledge or by another person. But to a large extent it seemed to close the saga that began in May, a few days after firing Comey, then head of an investigation into the ties of Trump members with Russian officials. Trump has discussed Comey’s version of a January dinner during which the director said the president had asked for a pledge of allegiance.
Trump responded at that time, through Twitter, that Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before they start filtering to the press!
This apparently angry letter caused a series of consequences more and more serious than the last ones. Comey has suggested that the tweet asked him to ask an associate to filter out harmful information to the media. The resulting news reports forced a senior Justice Department official to appoint an independent prosecutor to oversee Russia’s investigation. According to reports, that special council will investigate Trump’s own actions in an investigation that could pursue his presidency in the foreseeable future.
Trump’s statement now that there are no recordings seem to solve a key dynamic in that investigation: Now is the president’s word against Comey’s notes.
Without recordings, Comey’s version of his talks with Trump – which he documented at the time, shared with close associates and testified to Congress – would likely play a key role as prosecutors considered whether Trump inappropriately pressured lawman to stop investigating ex National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Investigators will also weigh Comey’s credibility against a president who has demonstrated a vacillating commitment to accuracy.
Thursday’s revelation came one day before the deadline to deliver the tapes to the House Intelligence Committee. The moment drew attention away from the release of the Senate health bill, which the White House hopes can provide Trump with a much-needed legislative victory to boost his numbers drop poll.
Trump’s tweets, old and new, left many perplexed as to whether there was any motive or strategy behind the whole affair. The president seemed to enjoy dismembering the mystery and turning Washington’s reporters over the possibility of a trove of hidden conversations in the oval office.
“I think he was instinctively trying to fool Comey,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump confidant, said before Thursday’s tweets. “He’s not a professional politician, he does not come back and he thinks of Nixon and Watergate, his instinct is,” I’ll bluff you. ”
Trump’s earlier suggestion on tapes evoked the secret recordings of the White House that led to the fall of Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal. Under a post-Watergate law, the Presidential Records Act, recordings made by presidents belong to the people and may eventually be made public. To destroy them would be a crime.
But the episode tired Trump’s supporters and aides, who for weeks have been dodging questions about the recordings. Advisors who talk to Trump regularly have said he had not mentioned the existence of tapes during their talks. More than half a dozen attendees said they were unaware of the recording devices. Everyone demanded anonymity to discuss private discussions with the president.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday she does not think Trump has regretted the initial tweet. As for his possible motivation, I would just say that perhaps it was “raising the question of doubt in general.” Nor could he explain Trump’s new reference to possible surveillance.
Mark Warner of Virginia, the Senate’s top Senate intelligence chief, said: “This administration never ceases to amaze me.” He said that tweeting is an example of “Trump’s willingness to do things”.
“It is surprising that the president has been so light to do his original tweet and then franq”I do not know how this serves the country’s interests.” This is not the first time that Trump, the former star of television reality and tabloids, has fabricated A melodrama that begins with swagger, but often ends with a groan. Trump flirted with the presidential races in 1988 and 2000 before leaving them.He offered to help rebuild the World Trade Center in 2004 but never followed. Embraced birtherism, questioned whether Obama was born in the United States and was eligible to become president, prompted his own political ascent. “The president has played the media as a violin for two and a half years,” said Senator Florida Marco Rubio The boss has continued since the election of Trump On New Year’s Eve, he said he knew “Things Other People Do not Know” about foreign piracy in the elections of the year And that the information would be revealed “on Tuesday or Wednesday.” Those days came and went without response. In March, he tweeted the inflammatory claim that he was pressured by his predecessor, an accusation he never supported. “It follows the paradigm that no news is bad news,” said Sam Nunberg, a former campaign aide. “He knows how to play with America’s insatiable appetite, not just for news, but for drama and interest,” the spokesman told Washington. “He also brought problems to his White House.A possible recordings inspired him to divulge to the media through an intermediary a memorandum he had written of his conversation at the Oval Office.At that meeting, according to the memorandum, Trump told him To Comey, who was expected to leave Flynn’s investigation.A week after the memorandum was revealed, the Justice Department appointed Robert Mueller as special adviser to take charge of the investigation into the contacts between Russia and Trump’s political campaign.
