The White House on Friday refused to say whether President Donald Trump has recorded his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey.
“I’ve talked to the president. The president has nothing further to add on that," White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters, according to The Hill.
Spicer was pressed three times to reveal whether the president taped the conversation but repeated his answer.
The comments came hours after Trump told Comey that he "better hope" that there are no "tapes" of their conversations.
"James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" tweeted Trump.
Spicer denied that Trump was trying to warn Comey to stay silent about the circumstances surrounding his firing.
“That’s not a threat. He simply stated a fact. The tweet speaks for itself," Spicer said, according to The Hill, adding that he is "not aware" of any recording that exists of the conversations between Trump and Comey.
Spicer also declined to comment when asked whether Trump is recording any conversations in the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday that Comey is "not worried about any tapes" of conversations between him and Trump.
"If there is a tape, there's nothing he is worried about" that could be on it,” stressed the source.
Trump abruptly fired Comey earlier this week. On Thursday, the president toldNBC News he planned to fire Comey regardless of the Justice Department’s recommendation – comments that appeared to be contradictory to ones made by the White House, which previously said Trump only decided to oust Comey after meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
"I was going to fire regardless of the recommendation,” Trump said Thursday. “Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.”
"He's a showboat, he's grandstander, the FBI has been in turmoil," he continued. "You know that, I know that. Everybody knows that. You take a look at the FBI a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil, less than a year ago. It hasn't recovered from that."
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)