WASHINGTON—There are no tapes.U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday that he did not record his White House conversations with former FBI director James Comey, revealing that he was merely bluffing when he mentioned the possibility of tapes in a Twitter post in May.Trump and his spokespeople had repeatedly refused to respond when asked if recordings existed. He finally provided the answer a day before a deadline set by the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Intelligence Committee.“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 said on Twitter.Despite his qualifications, Trump’s tweets Thursday afternoon amount to a rare public concession that his words were not based in fact.He will now face questions about why he appeared to threaten Comey with the prospect of imaginary recordings.Three days after Trump fired Comey, he wrote on Twitter: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” That tweet came the day after the New York Times published an account of a private dinner the two men had in January. The sources were anonymous, but Comey later acknowledged he had passed details of his exchanges with Trump to his friends.Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, told the Associated Press that Trump was “instinctively trying to rattle Comey.” “He’s not a professional politician. He doesn’t come back and think about Nixon and Watergate. His instinct is: ‘I’ll out-bluff you,’” Gingrich said.The committee had asked White House counsel Don McGahn in early June to say by Friday whether any tapes existed. The committee’s top Democrat sa ...
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