Trump warns Comey over leaks after threatening to cancel media briefings
Amid a worsening row with the media, the US president tweets that fired FBI director James Comey ‘better hope there are no tapes’ of their conversations ‘before leaking to the press’
US President Donald Trump warned his former FBI director against speaking to the media and held out the possibility that his White House will halt regular press briefings amid a worsening row between the president’s administration and reporters.
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump said in a tweet, which immediately followed another aimed at the media: “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”
Trump’s latest series of tweets comes a day after media outlets made contradictions about Trump’s reasons for firing ex-FBI Director James Comey top news.
Questions about the “tapes” referenced in Trump’s tweet, particularly whether or not the president recorded conversations he had with Comey, dominated a White House press briefing with Press Secretary Sean Spicer later on Friday.
“I’ve talked to the president, and the president has nothing further to add on that,” Spicer said numerous times throughout his 35-minute briefing.