President Trump said Friday that his comment about tapes was to keep former FBI Director James B. Comey honest.
“I didn’t tape, and I don’t have any tape, and I didn’t tape. But when he found out that there may be tapes out there, whether it’s governmental tapes, or anything else, who knows, I think his story may have changed. And you’ll have to take a look at that because then he has to tell what actually took place at the events,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News.
“He did admit that what I said was right, and if you look further back before he heard about that, I think maybe he wasn’t admitting that. You’ll have to do a little investigative reporting to determine that. I don’t think it’ll be that hard,” the president said.
Mr. Trump suggested that Mr. Comey may not have been telling the whole truth regarding his conversations with the president until it was revealed that there could be tapes out there. Mr. Trump said he never taped Mr. Comey, but instead referred to the possibility of taped conversation by intelligence or government officials.
“You never know what’s happening when you know the Obama administration, or perhaps longer than that, was doing this unmasking and surveillance and you read all about it, and I’ve been reading about it for the last couple of months, about the seriousness and horrible situation, about surveillance all over the place,” Mr. Trump said.
On the possible resignation of special counsel Robert Mueller, Mr. Trump said Mr. Mueller’s friendship with Mr. Comey and his staff’s ties to former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton were “bothersome.” Mr. Trump also denied again the charges of collusion or obstruction of justice regarding his campaign’s ties to Russia and Mr. Comey’s firing.
“Well he’s very, very good friends with Comey, which is very bothersome, but he’s also — we’re going to have to see. There has been no obstruction, there has been no collusion, there has been leaking by Comey, but there’s been no collusion and no obstruction,” Mr. Trump said.
“I can say the people that have been hired are Hillary Clinton supporters, some of whom worked for Hillary Clinton, the whole thing is ridiculous if you want to know the truth from that standpoint,” he said.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump says he has no tapes of James Comey’s conversations
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.