Trump Tweets That He Did Not Tape Conversations With Comey

The House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to the White House asking to confirm whether the tapes exist by Friday. California congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the panel, said he still wants a response from the White House.

“Regardless of whether the president intends his tweet to be an official reply to the House Intelligence Committee, the White House must respond in writing to our committee as to whether any tapes or recordings exist,” Schiff said in a statement.

The California congressman said 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 in a statement. “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?”

The committee is probing Russian election interference, including any potential links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, as well as leaks of classified information.

On the Senate side, Virginia senator Mark Warner said the president’s tweets “left something hanging.”

“It’s remarkable that the president was so flippant to make his original tweet and then frankly stonewall the media and the country for weeks,” Warner said. “I don’t know how this serves the country’s interests. I think in many ways it was maybe an attempt to try to intimidate Jim Comey, which obviously he didn’t. Mr. Comey’s testimony was critical. But as I said earlier this administration never ceases to amaze me.”

Trump suggested there could be tapes of his conversations with Comey on May 12.

That tweet triggered Comey to leak details about a memo he kept of a conversation he had with the president, in the hope that doing so would get a special counsel appointed.