Day 132
President Donald Trump issued a thinly veiled threat Friday to fired FBI Director James Comey, apparently suggesting there are possibly recorded conversations between the two men that could be leaked to counter the former FBI director if necessary.
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press,” Trump tweeted.
The remark is an extraordinary development in the ongoing feud between the President and the agencies investigating alleged ties between his campaign and White House press secretary Sean Spicer said at an afternoon briefing that Trump’s warning was “not a threat,” adding, “The President has nothing further to say on that.”
When he fired Comey earlier this week, Trump garnered comparisons to President Richard Nixon and his infamous decision to remove the special prosecutor investigating Watergate crimes in 1973. The Watergate scandal accelerated drastically when it was revealed Nixon taped conversations in the White House. Trump didn’t provide further details Friday on whether he was taping conversations.
Asked whether Trump was recording conversations in the White House, Spicer repeated his statement that Trump had nothing further to add.
Comey is “not worried about any tapes” of conversations between him and Trump, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday, adding that “if there is a tape, there’s nothing he is worried about” that could be on it.