White House press secretary Sean Spicer declined to specify when President Donald Trump would potentially release tapes of his conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey.
Trump, Spicer said, would further address the tapes “in due time,” “as soon as possible” and “when he’s ready to further discuss it.”
Spicer noted, though, that Trump was “not waiting for anything.”
Trump first brought up the existence of possible taped conversations with Comey three days after he abruptly fired him.
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
On Thursday, Comey said Trump’s tweet was his motivation for telling a friend to relay the contents of memos detailing his meetings with Trump to the press — which, Comey said, he hoped would in turn prompt the appointment of a special counsel to lead the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
At a press conference Friday, Trump said he would reveal whether he had taped his conversations with Comey “in the very near future” and “over a fairly short period of time.” Bloomberg’s Toluse Olorunnipa recently noted that Trump has often made and missed deadlines as a way of delaying or avoiding answering tough questions.
“Why leave open this question of whether there are tapes?” Reuters’ Ayesha Rascoe asked Spicer at his press briefing Monday. “Don’t the American people — Do they deserve to know whether Comey was lying to the Senate? Why leave this question open?”
“I think the President made it clear what his intention is on Friday,” Spicer said.
“It’s an open question,”Rascoe pressed.
“I understand that,” Spicer replied. “And he said he would answer that question in due time.”
NBC News’ Hallie Jackson followed up later: “If the President does have evidence that the FBI director lied under oath, what is he waiting for?” she asked.
“I think the President made it very clear on Friday that he would get back as soon as possible on this and his position on that conversation,” Spicer said.
“So what is he waiting for?” Jackson asked. “What’s the delay?”
“He’s not waiting for anything,” Spicer said. “When he’s ready to further discuss it, he will, but I think he laid out his position very clearly, very concisely on Friday.”
