Trump doesn’t have Comey tapes: report

The recordings President Trump purported to have of his White House conversations with former FBI Director James Comey do not exist, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

Trump acknowledged himself shortly after the Bloomberg report that he did not record his meetings with Comey, but suggested that the conversations may have been monitored by “electronic surveillance.”

With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017

…whether there are “tapes” or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017

Trump suggested in a tweet last month that he may have taped his interactions with Comey during visits by the then-FBI director to the White House. The president and his aides, however, have declined to say whether such recordings actually exist.

“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump wrote on Twitter in May.

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

At a news conference earlier this month, Trump said he would reveal “in the very near future” whether he has the tapes or not.

{mosads}”I’ll tell you about that maybe sometime in the very near future,” Trump told reporters.

Comey revealed in a testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month that Trump had once asked him for a pledge of loyalty during a January dinner at the White House.

He also said that Trump has pressed him to end the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Comey documented his meetings with Trump in unclassified memos, telling the Intelligence Committee that he was concerned the president could try to lie about their interactions.

Bloomberg reported that Trump had made the suggestion that he had recordings of his conversations with Comey to ensure that Comey was truthful about their conversations.

The House Intelligence Committee, which is among four congressional panels investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 election, sent a letter to White House Counsel Don McGahn earlier this month asking him to notify them whether the recordings existed.

 -This report was updated at 1:07 p.m.