(ANTIMEDIA) President Donald Trump started another day of his trademark rage-tweeting early Friday morning, during which he denied collusion with Russia, complained about the “Fake Media,” threatened to cancel all future press briefings, and in one particularly menacing tweet, issued a not-so-thinly veiled threat to extort former FBI Director James Comey.
James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump warned just days after firing Comey, who was leading the investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. James Comey is the third prominent official to be fired by President Trump while investigating him. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara were also investigating the president when they were fired.
Some are speculating that Trump issued the threat in response to a New York Times report published on Thursday that revealed Donald Trump repeatedly demanded Comey’s loyalty during a private dinner between the two in January. According to the report:
“As they ate, the president and Mr. Comey made small talk about the election and the crowd sizes at Mr. Trump’s rallies. The president then turned the conversation to whether Mr. Comey would pledge his loyalty to him.
“Mr. Comey declined to make that pledge. Instead, Mr. Comey has recounted to others, he told Mr. Trump that he would always be honest with him, but that he was not ‘reliable’ in the conventional political sense.
“By Mr. Comey’s account, his answer to Mr. Trump’s initial question apparently did not satisfy the president, the associates said. Later in the dinner, Mr. Trump again said to Mr. Comey that he needed his loyalty.
“Mr. Comey again replied that he would give him ‘honesty’ and did not pledge his loyalty, according to the account of the conversation.
“But Mr. Trump pressed him on whether it would be ‘honest loyalty.’
“‘You will have that,’ Mr. Comey told his associates he responded.”
Trump denied the allegations Thursday in an interview with NBC.
Hours after the threatening tweet, sources close to James Comey told reporters he is “not worried” about any potential “tapes.” He apparently “hopes there are tapes.” “That would be perfect,” a source reportedly told NBC News.
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