President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to officially confirm that he did not make any tapes of his conversation with fired FBI director James Comey.
"With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea......whether there are "tapes" or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings," Trump tweeted.
Thursday's development comes more than a month after the president floated the idea that there might've been secret recordings of his conversations with Comey.
Shortly after he fired Comey, Trump ignited a wave of speculation about recordings with an enigmatic May tweet saying that "James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
Comey has said Trump's implied threat was the reason he shared information about contemporaneous notes he took on his talks with the president.
Comey, who was running the FBI's investigation into possible collusion between associates of the president and Russians seeking to influence last year's election before he was fired on May 9, says Trump pressed him to drop the inquiry into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
During Comey's testimony last month to the Senate Intelligence Committee, he told senators "Lordy, I hope there are tapes."
It's unclear why it took the president more than a month to confirm that he didn't secretly record the conversations.
...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
House members running their own Russia investigations sent the White House a letter asking the White House to submit any tapes by June 23 – which is Friday.
USA TODAY contributed to this report.
