The president’s Twitter messages on Thursday left open the possibility that the conversations may have been taped without his knowledge. But they largely confirmed the suspicions of outsiders that Mr. Trump had been leveling a baseless threat at Mr. Comey on May 12, when he wrote, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”VideoSome legal experts have said that Mr. Trump’s threat could be used in an obstruction of justice case against him, since it could be interpreted as putting pressure on Mr. Comey not to discuss their conversations about the F.B.I.’s Russia investigation. This month, Mr. Comey testified in detail about those conversations, saying the president had appealed to him on multiple occasions not to pursue an investigation of his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, and his alleged links to Russian officials. Mr. Trump’s announcement, however expected, distracted from the released on Thursday of the Republican health care legislation in the Senate. She also said she did not believe his intention in his original Twitter post about tapes had been to intimidate Mr. Comey.

Source: New York Times June 22, 2017 17:16 UTC