President Trump warned former FBI Director James Comey not to leak the details of their conversations in which Trump asked Comey if the FBI is investigating him, implying there are tapes of the meetings.
In his letter firing Comey, Trump noted that the ex-FBI director told him three times that he was not under investigation in the FBI’s probe into connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Some say such a conversation would be a major breach of FBI and Department of Justice protocol, although the White House dismissed those fears and said the conversations don’t represent a conflict of interest.
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump tweeted.
Reports published Thursday revealed Trump asked Comey to pledge loyalty to him during a dinner shortly after Trump took office in January. The former FBI director reportedly declined that request.
Trump has been very sensitive to leaks from his administration. He’s often called leaks from his White House the real story the media should be chasing, and has said the FBI should spend more time investigating who was giving out classified information to the press than Russian involvement in the 2016 election.
Trump fired Comey Tuesday evening, and a Justice Department memo said a major reason was how he handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. The department said Comey erred by assuming the powers of the attorney general by saying he would not bring charges, and also criticized two press conferences he gave last year to describe the status of the case.
Trump said in an interview with NBC News that he determined before firing Comey that the investigation into Russia working with his campaign was a “made up story” and was going to fire Comey regardless of what his subordinates recommended.
