Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speculated Thursday that President Trump may not have taped the conversations he had with former FBI Director James Comey.
Gingrich said the president may have been trying to scare Comey after a New York Times report recounted a dinner between Comey and Trump in which the latter asked for loyalty.
“I think he was in his way instinctively trying to rattle Comey,” Gingrich told the Associated Press. “He’s not a professional politician. He doesn’t come back and think about Nixon and Watergate. His instinct is: ‘I’ll outbluff you.'”
In response to the report, Trump tweeted Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
“Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Comey said when testifying to Congress earlier this month about his private conversations with the president.
Trump told reporters weeks ago that he’d reveal “in the very near future” whether he had tapes of the conversations.
White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said Wednesday the question would be answered this week.
The House Intelligence Committee had set a Friday deadline to turn over the alleged tapes.
Destroying any recordings made by presidents is illegal under the Presidential Records Act.
