The top-ranked Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday he wants to hear more from the White House regarding whether or not tapes of conversations between President Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey exist.
Trump posted a series of tweets Thursday afternoon that threw cold water on the question of whether he recorded his conversations with Comey.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Trump's brief statement was not enough to prove the absence of tapes.
"Today, the president tweeted that he did not personally make or have possession of tapes of his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey and was not aware of whether such tapes existed but stopped short of denying that the White House has any tapes or recordings in its possession," Schiff said in a statement.
"Regardless of whether the president intends his tweets to be an official reply to the House Intelligence Committee, the White House must respond in writing to our committee as to whether any tapes or recordings exist."
Schiff added that he hopes Trump was telling the truth, but he questioned why he would have raised the possibility that the conversations were recorded in the first place.
"If the president had no tapes, why did he suggest otherwise? Did he seek to mislead the public? Was he trying to intimidate or silence James Comey?" Schiff said. "And if so, did he take other steps to discourage potential witnesses from speaking out?"
Trump tweeted this in May:
He followed that up with this Thursday:
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