Trump Comes Clean About Comey 'Tapes'

President Trump admitted Thursday he never recorded his conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey—more than a month after he implied he may have, the New York Times reports. "With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea ... whether there are 'tapes' or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings," Trump said in a series of tweets. Back on May 12, Trump had tweeted: "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"

Trump's original tweet led to weeks of speculation that he was recording conversations in the Oval Office—despite multiple government agencies saying that wasn't the case, CNN reports. A senior administration official says Trump has been enjoying all the attention his talk of "tapes" has gotten—CNN notes he's been treating it "like a game show reveal"—but he probably shouldn't be. Comey testified that Trump's "tapes" tweet spurred him to leak a memo detailing a conversation with the president to the media. That directly led to the appointment of the special counsel currently investigating the Trump administration. "If he doesn't regret this, he should," the administration official says of Trump. (More Donald Trump stories.)