With threat of 'tapes', Trump tells ousted FBI chief not to talk to media

Washington: Donald Trump warned ousted FBI Director James Comey on Friday not to talk to the media, a highly unusual move that prompted fresh charges the president is trying to silence the man who led an investigation into possible collusion between Trump's election campaign and Russia.

On Twitter, Trump appeared to suggest that if Comey gave his version of contacts between them, the administration might produce tapes of conversations, although it was not clear if such tapes exist. The veiled threat added to the storm over Trump's abrupt firing of Comey on Tuesday.

Critics have assailed Trump for dismissing the FBI chief at a time when the agency is investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, and possible Moscow ties to the Trump presidential campaign.

In a report that fuelled charges that Trump has overstepped the norms of his office, the New York Times reported, citing accounts of Comey associates, that the president asked Comey in January to pledge loyalty to him. Such a request would undermine the standing of the FBI chief as an independent law enforcer.

"James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" Trump said in a string of Twitter posts on Friday morning.

CNN said later that Comey is "not worried about any tapes" Trump may have of their conversations, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter. CBS Evening News, citing a source who has spoken with Comey, said on Twitter that Comey hopes there are "lots of tapes."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation probe and parallel congressional investigations have cast a cloud over Trump's presidency since he took office on Jan. 20, threatening to overwhelm his policy priorities.

Democrats have accused the Republican president of trying to dent the FBI probe by firing Comey, and have called for a special counsel to investigate the Russia issue.

The New York Times said Comey has told associates he declined to make a pledge of loyalty to Trump when the president requested it as the pair had dinner at the White House just seven days after his inauguration. Comey instead told Trump he could count on his honesty, the Times said.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing that Trump did not demand Comey's loyalty. Asked to clarify whether there were any tapes as Trump suggested, Spicer said he had nothing further to add to the president's tweets.

"It's shocking to the conscience. We've got to address that," said Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, referring to Trump's behaviour with Comey, including the report that the president asked for the FBI director's loyalty.

Trump says Comey had told him three times he was not under investigation in the Russia probe. He said in an interview on Thursday with NBC News that Comey gave him this assurance during the January dinner at the White House and in two phone conversations.

Comey has not publicly discussed any conversations he has had with Trump. Acting FBI director Andrew McCabe sidestepped a question during a Senate hearing on Thursday on whether he ever heard Comey tell Trump that the president was not the subject of investigation. 

TRUMP IS 'DANGEROUS'

The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Richard Durbin, slammed the president after Friday's tweets, telling MSNBC that the president is "dangerous because he may be obstructing justice in terms of the investigation and secondly his credibility has been destroyed."

Trump also hit back on Friday at media reports questioning the credibility of White House accounts of why Comey was fired, which have changed over the course of the week, and threatened an end to regular White House press briefings.

"As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!" Trump said. "Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future 'press briefings' and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy".

The White House initially said Trump fired Comey on the recommendation of the top Justice Department officials: Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. In the NBC interview on Thursday, Trump said he would have fired Comey regardless of any such recommendations.

The White House has said Comey's firing was unrelated to the Russia probe. On Thursday, Trump told NBC he knew he ran the risk that by firing Comey he would "confuse people" and "lengthen out the investigation" into ties to Russia.

The president said he never pressured Comey into dropping the FBI probe, and added that there was no "collusion between me and my campaign and the Russians."

US intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign of interference in the election aimed at tilting the vote in Trump's favour. Moscow has denied any such meddling.

Seeking to bolster Trump's case that he has had no concealed dealings with Russia, his lawyers said in a letter released by the White House on Friday that a review of Trump's tax returns from the past 10 years showed no income from Russian sources outside of a few exceptions, and indicated he did not owe money to Russian lenders.

Trump, a wealthy New York real estate developer, has refused repeated calls from his critics to release his tax returns.

This lack of transparency has fuelled accusations that there might be some personal business reason for his campaign pledge to seek warmer ties with Putin if elected.

The letter released by the White House, dated March 8, said the tax returns did not reflect any Trump income from Russian sources, aside from money earned during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and the 2008 sale of a Florida estate to a Russian billionaire.