U.S. Secret Service says it does not have any White House tapes

U.S. Secret Service says it does not have any White House tapes

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. Secret Service said Monday, June 12 it does not have any audio recordings or transcripts of U.S. President Donald Trump's White House conversations, AFP reports.

After Trump again intimated last week that he could have recorded his controversial discussions with fired FBI director James Comey, it remained unclear if that claim was true.

The issue could be crucial for the president amid allegations -- though not formal accusations -- that he has sought to obstruct the investigation into possible collusion by his advisors in Russian interference in last year's presidential election.

The Secret Service, which protects the president and his family, maintained a secret taping system for the White House in the eras of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

But in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Wall Street Journal, the agency said it did not have any such records for the Trump administration.

"It appears, from a review of Secret Service's main indices, that there are not records pertaining to your request," the agency told the Journal in a letter.

On May 12, three days after he fired Comey, Trump suggested in a tweet that he had recorded their private discussions with Comey.

The claim came in response to reports, since confirmed, that Comey himself had kept detailed notes on those discussions in which, he alleges, Trump demanded a pledge of loyalty and pressed the then-FBI director to pull off on an investigation into Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

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