Former FBI director James Comey reportedly does want to testify about alleged ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign – but only if it is in public.
Comey declined on Friday to testify behind closed doors before the Senate Intelligence Committee after he was invited to appear next Tuesday.
But a source close to the ousted FBI director told the New York Times that Comey is willing to testify in public.
Before his firing on Tuesday, Comey had been scheduled to appear in Thursday’s hearings – one in public and another more revealing classified session.
President Donald Trump seemed to throw him a brushback pitch on Twitter, writing Friday that Comey had ‘better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!’
The White House wouldn’t rule out, hours later, the possibility that the president’s three known conversations with his then-FBI chief were recorded.
Trump has claimed that Comey told him on all three occasions that he wasn’t personally under investigation.
According to unnamed friends of Comey’s who are leaking his thoughts to reporters, he is hoping to hear his own voice and Trump’s on recordings of his presidential chit-chat
Comey is ‘not worried about any tapes’ of those talks between him and the president, according to CNN, who quoted a Comey friend saying that ‘if there is a tape, there’s nothing he is worried about.’
NBC News has its own secret access to Comey’s inner circle, with one person close to him saying: ‘He hopes there are tapes. That would be perfect.’
White House press secretary Sean Spicer wouldn’t rule out the possibility during Friday’s briefing.
‘The president has nothing further to add,’ he said several times. Asked directly whether the White House is taping Trump’s phone calls , he wouldn’t give a yes-or-no answer.
And when asked if it was proper for the president to threaten his former FBI director.
It’s also possible that the FBI or the Justice Department was openly recording, or secretly monitoring, Comey’s calls. A request for information from the DOJ went unanswered on Friday.
Trump said Thursday during an interview with NBC News that the two men have spoken at least three times since Inauguration Day.
And on those occasions, he insisted, Comey assured him that he was not personally the subject of any federal investigations.
‘He said it once at dinner and then he said it twice during phone calls,’ Trump said.
He described a matter-of-fact exchange over dinner in which he asked an unusual question and got an unconventional response.
‘I said, “If it’s possible would you let me know, am I under investigation?” Trump recalled.
‘He said, “You are not under investigation”.’
Spicer was asked Friday whether or not the White House had a recording of that dinnertime conversation, and replied: ‘I’m not aware of that.’
It is rare for a federal law enforcement official to tell anyone, including the President of the United States, whether they are being investigated.
Even if Comey doesn’t speak to reporters about the circumstances behind his dismissal on Tuesday, he may have a high-profile venue to tell his side of the story.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked him to testify next week.
The latest twist from Trump amid reports that he demanded loyalty from James Comey during the private dinner at the White House back in January.
The claims from associates of the now fired FBI director. Comey had told associates that he was summoned to the White House for a one-on-one dinner with Trump seven days after the inauguration, the New York Times reports.
It was during the dinner that Trump reportedly asked Comey twice to pledge loyalty to him as the new Commander in Chief.
MORE HERE: James Comey ‘wants to testify in public’ about Russia | Daily Mail Online
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