Recordings Between Comey and Trump Do Not Exist

President Donald Trump has finally admitted that recordings that he had claimed to possess of his conversations with former FBI director James Comey, do not exist. This claim was made six weeks ago and the revelation that the statement is false has hurt the president’s credibility.

Trump claimed that he possessed tapes on his Twitter account, a source where he delivers many messages a day to the public. On May 12, Trump’s declared from his Twitter account “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” His tweet insinuating that he had recordings of the conversation earned him comparisons to President Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal.

On June 22, Trump released another statement on his Twitter stating, “With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea … whether there are “tapes” or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.”

It is believed that Trump took to Twitter to write his message so that he would not be questioned by journalists. The White House banned live television coverage of its daily briefing and only allowed an audio recording to be broadcasted afterward. The absence of the tapes leads people to believe that Trump’s May tweet was an attempt to intimidate James Comey.

However, when Comey testified to the Senate intelligence committee in June, he stated “Lordy, I hope there are tapes” because tapes would only prove the uncomfortable and inappropriate conversations that President Trump had with Comey pressuring him to drop the Russia investigation and tell the public that he was not under investigation. Without the presence of tapes, what happened during those conversations is just Comey’s word against Trump’s. Comey stated at the hearing that Trump’s tweet about tapes made him want to defend himself by releasing the memos he took after each conversation with President Trump.

Comey gave the memos to a trusted friend who gave them to a reporter. This led to the appointment of a special counsel, Robert Mueller. Mueller will remove Comey’s meticulous memos as well as Trump’s tweet in May to decide whether President Trump has committed obstruction of justice.

In response to why President Trump led the public to believe that he possessed tapes for six weeks, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated that, “I don’t think it was a game. I certainly think that the President would hope that the former director would tell the truth, but I think it was more about raising the question of doubt, in general.”

Associates of Trump believe that this is typical behavior of the President to spark conspiracy theories and dominate political conversation as well as his reluctance to admit mistakes. After years of claiming that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, Trump only admitted to this being a false accusation recently. He turned the blame for the conspiracy onto Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign claiming, “Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it, you know what I mean.”  

Trump stated that there was the possibility that there was taping going on in the White House without his knowledge, which was stated with no evidence. Critics of President Trump like Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, “Trump, as commander in chief, has the authority to know about any covert actions being performed by intelligence agencies or any electronic surveillance in the White House. To say he has no idea is absolutely preposterous and really an insult to the intelligence of the American people.”

Featured Image Via Flickr/girardatlarge