President Donald Trump fired off warnings and barely veiled threats in a burst of morning tweets that raised new questions about the dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey and kept attention on the investigation of Russian political meddling.
After days of contradictory narratives put out by the White House about Comey’s firing and leaks from within the administration as well from the ousted FBI chief’s allies, Trump on Friday suggested there may be secret recordings of his conversations and threatened to cut off public briefings by his staff.
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump wrote in one of six tweets that began at 7:15 a.m.
Asked whether Trump has his conversations recorded, National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton declined to comment. Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to take questions during an awards ceremony at the Justice Department Friday morning.
Secret audio tapes were central to the downfall of former President Richard Nixon, who resigned rather than face certain impeachment in 1974. One of the recordings released after a fight with Congress and the courts revealed the president’s involvement in attempts to stymie an investigation into an attempt to wiretap the Democratic National Committee.
Trump’s tweets, including two in which he dismissed questions about whether any of his associates colluded in Russia’s interference in last year’s presidential election, again overpowered the White House message on economic and security issues.
As the Comey firing and the Russia probe consumed cable news networks and the internet, the administration announced an agreement with China to promote market access for U.S. natural gas, financial services and beef and a Saudi Arabian plan to invest as much as $40 billion of its sovereign wealth in U.S. infrastructure projects.
Although Trump and his aides repeatedly express frustration with the continued attention drawn by the investigation into Russian election meddling, the president keeps raising the issue. In addition to the Friday morning tweet barrage, Trump on Thursday called Comey, who was leading the FBI’s probe, a “showboat” and “grandstander” and claimed that Comey assured him he personally wasn’t under investigation.
Tax Letter
The White House on Friday also released a single-page letter from Trump’s tax lawyers that said a review of the last 10 years of his tax returns showed that -- with the exception of income from a Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, the sale of an estate in Florida and some possible third party transactions -- there was no “income of any type from Russian sources.”
The letter didn’t include any documentation and Trump, breaking with presidential precedent in the recent past, has refused to release any returns for public scrutiny. The letter was produced in response to a request from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who leads one of the congressional panels conducting a probe of election interference, for any information on financial ties Trump may have to Russia.
As Trump tries to put the Russia probe in the background, the nation’s top law-enforcement agency shows no sign of backing down in the face of the president’s criticism.
Comey’s temporary replacement, Andrew McCabe, made clear that he liked and respected Comey and had no intention of briefing Trump on the investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump’s campaign as long as he held the job. He said he considered it one of the most important probes underway at the Justice Department.
FBI Support
McCabe, a 21-year-veteran of the bureau, made an effort during Senate testimony Thursday to dispute White House assertions that his former boss had lost the trust of FBI rank-and-file.
“Director Comey enjoyed broad support in the FBI and still does to this day,” McCabe said Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said that working with Comey was “the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life.”
Trump seemed to acknowledge the Russia probe might touch people once close to him, taking pains to point out Thursday, in an interview with NBC News, that Comey assured him three times he’s not in trouble -- but offered no such assurance regarding others in his campaign.
“I know that I’m not under investigation. Me. Personally,” Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt. “I’m not talking about campaigns. I’m not talking about anything else.”
The clash between the president and the nation’s premier law enforcement agency continued a week of high drama in Washington. It began on May 8, when congressional testimony by fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates raised new questions about why the White House waited 18 days to dismiss National Security Adviser Michael Flynn from his post after he misled officials -- including Vice President Mike Pence -- about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. Bloomberg