White House won’t say whether Trump records Oval Office conversations

WASHINGTON — White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Friday repeatedly refused to rule out the possibility that Donald Trump has recorded his Oval Office conversations, and insisted the president had not threatened his sacked FBI director.

After Trump tweeted that his fired FBI director should hope such recordings do not come to light, Spicer pointedly refused to rule out the existence of such tapes.

“The president has nothing further to add on that,” Spicer said numerous times in answer to rapid-fire questions.

In an angry early morning tweet storm, Trump warned that “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

“I don’t think — that’s not a threat. He simply stated a fact. The tweet speaks for itself. I’m moving on,” Spicer said.

Trump’s warning prompted new accusations of interference in an investigation into allegations of collaboration between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign last year.

His bareknuckle comments immediately fueled fresh comparisons between his administration and that of disgraced president Richard Nixon, who famously recorded his conversations — a fact that sped his downfall during the Watergate scandal.

In an interview with Fox News Friday, Trump declined to comment on whether he has listening devices in the White House.

“Well that I can’t talk about. I won’t talk about that. All I want is for Comey to be honest. And I hope he will be,” Trump said.

The tweet appeared to refer to a series of three conversations in which, Trump claims, Comey assured him he was not under FBI investigation as part of the bureau’s probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Comey has not explicitly denied the account. But sources close to him have cast doubt on the president’s account, noting it would be extraordinary for an FBI director to discuss an open investigation.