The heads of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe are threatening to use their subpoena power if the White House does not respond “appropriately and fully” as to whether it has documentation of conversations between the president and fired FBI director James Comey.
Trump addressed weeks of speculation last Thursday when he tweeted that he did not tape his conversations with Comey.
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’s tweet came one day before the White House was due to answer a letter from the intelligence panel asking whether or not the recordings exist.
In a letter to the panel Friday, the White House cited Trump’s tweet. But Texas congressman Mike Conaway and California congressman Adam Schiff, the heads of the committee’s Russia probe, said in a statement that they were not satisfied with the White House response.
“The President’s statement on Twitter, and the White House’s letter referring to the President’s statement, were only partially responsive to the Committee’s request,” the statement said. “The Committee has sent the White House a second letter urging the White House to appropriately and fully comply with the Committee’s June 9 request.”
“Today’s letter from the Committee makes clear that should the White House not to respond fully, the Committee will consider using compulsory process to ensure a satisfactory response,” the statement concluded.
Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, said last week that the president’s tweets “stop short of denying WH has any tapes in possession.”
“If the president’s statement is accurate, it of course raises as many questions as it answers,” Schiff said. “If the president had no tapes, why did he suggest otherwise? Did he seek to mislead the public? Was he trying to intimidate or silence James Comey?”
