President Trump shouldn’t be playing coy about whether tapes of conversations between himself and former FBI Director James Comey exist and should give a straight answer, Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday.
Collins said on CNN Trump’s answer at a Friday press conference, that reporters would find out very soon if the tapes exist, isn’t good enough.
“This is an issue that the president should have cleared up in his press conference. He should give a straight answer, yes or no, if the tapes exist and he should voluntarily turn them over, not only to the Senate Intelligence Committee but to the special counsel,” Collins said.
Collins added she didn’t think a subpoena should be necessary for Trump to comply with a request from the committee, but if he doesn’t voluntarily turn over tapes of those conversations — should they exist — then a subpoena would be OK.
“I would be fine with a subpoena, but that would most likely come from the special counsel’s office,” she said.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director himself, is investigating Trump to see if his campaign worked in any way with the Russian government during the 2016 election. Comey’s FBI was doing its own investigation into those claims when Trump fired him, and a special counsel was appointed following Comey’s dismissal.
Trump is fighting off claims he obstructed justice by asking Comey to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation and to speak publicly that Trump himself was not a part of the investigation. Comey also testified Trump asked him to end his investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynn.
The Maine Republican said Trump should have never spoken one-on-one with Comey about that investigation and should never have even spoken to Comey about the Flynn investigation.
“It was wrong for the president to even bring up the suspect,” she said.
