Donald Trump asked to turn over James Comey tapes
US politicians call on Donald Trump to turn over any tapes of conversations he had with sacked FBI chief James Comey.
US politicians are calling on President Donald Trump to turn over any tapes of conversations with fired FBI chief James Comey, potentially setting up a showdown with the White House as Democrats considered a boycott of the vote on Mr Comey’s replacement.
In a highly unusual move, Mr Trump last week appeared to suggest on Twitter that he might have tapes of conversations with Mr Comey and warned the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation against talking to the media. Mr Trump and a White House spokesman declined to confirm or deny whether such tapes exist.
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
Mr Trump claims he removed Mr Comey because he was not doing a good job and had lost the support of FBI employees.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said in an interview the White House must “clear the air” about whether there are any taped conversations.
The FBI has been investigating alleged Russian meddling in the US election and possible ties between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Democrats have accused the president of attempting to thwart the FBI’s probe and have called for some type of independent inquiry into the matter. If there are recordings, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah told the Fox News Sunday” program it was “inevitable” that they would be subpoenaed and the White House would have to release them.
Mr Trump’s threat about tapes has intensified calls from Democrats for an independent probe of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump must immediately provide Congress with any tapes and warned that destroying existing tapes would violate the law.
Mr Schumer also said Senate Democrats are weighing whether to refuse to vote on a new FBI director until a special prosecutor is named to investigate Mr Trump’s potential ties to Russia.
Russia has denied the claims and the White House says there was no collusion. Mr Trump, who has sought better relations with Russia, has continued to question whether it was behind the hacking of email accounts belonging to Democrats involved in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told NBC’s Meet the Press program there is no question that “the Russians were playing around in our electoral processes”. He defended Mr Trump’s decision to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office last week saying it was in the interest of the American people.
The Justice Department began interviewing candidates for the FBI director job on Saturday.
Reuters
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