Democrats demand Trump release the alleged Comey tapes — or admit he made them up
Nobody has any idea what President Trump meant when he tweeted that former FBI Director James Comey "better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press," but if such tapes do actually exist, the Democrats want to see them.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the president "should immediately provide any such recordings to Congress or admit, once again, to have made a deliberately misleading — and in this case threatening — statement."
The top Democrats on the Judiciary and Oversight committees, John Conyers Jr. (Mich.) and Elijah Cummings (Md.), also issued a letter requesting "all documents, memoranda, analysis, emails, and other communications relating to the president's decision to dismiss Director Comey." Conyers and Cummings additionally pointed out that it is a crime to intimidate or threaten potential witnesses.
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Private citizens are trying their own ways to get their hands on any information about the alleged tapes:
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer refused to deny that Trump has recorded conversations in the Oval Office.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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