Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia is responding to President Donald Trump’s tweet that there are no recordings of his private conversations with fired FBI director James Comey, saying, “This administration never ceases to amaze me.”.
The Latest on President Donald Trump’s claim that there are no recordings of his private conversations with fired FBI director James Comey (all times EDT) :
3: 20 p.m.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia is responding to President Donald Trump’s tweet that there are no recordings of his private conversations with fired FBI director James Comey, saying, “This administration never ceases to amaze me.”
Warner is the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
He says the tweet is an example of Trump’s “willingness to just kind of make things up.”
Warner says: “It’s remarkable the president was so flippant to make his original tweet and then frankly stonewall the media and the country for weeks. I don’t know how this serves the country’s interests. I think in many ways it was maybe an attempt to try to intimidate Jim Comey, which obviously he didn’t.”
Warner says Trump’s tweet has no effect on the committee’s investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
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1: 10 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he “did not make” and doesn’t have any recordings of his private conversations with James Comey — his fired FBI director.
Trump also tweets that he has “no idea” whether other “tapes” or recordings exist.
Trump has disputed Comey’s assertion that Trump asked Comey for a pledge of loyalty during a dinner meeting they had.
When news of Comey’s account broke, Trump tweeted that Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
Under a post-Watergate law, presidential recordings belong to the people and eventually can be made public. Destroying them would be a crime.
The House committee investigating Russian meddling in the election set a Friday deadline for the White House to hand over any tapes.
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