DONALD Trump has threatened James Comey on Twitter, warning he may have something over him if he starts leaking to the press.
Mr Trump is under pressure in regards to sacking the former FBI director amid his agency’s investigation into Russian ties to the Trump campaign and reportedly days after he asked for more resources for the probe.
When the story broke, White House Counsellor Kellyanne Conway, White House press secretary Sean Spicer and his deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, all maintained that Mr Trump was acting on a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when he sacked Mr Comey and that the president was unhappy with the director’s handling of last year’s Hillary Clinton email saga.
Mr Rosenstein was reportedly furious that Mr Comey’s departure was placed at his feet, forcing Mr Trump to come out and say that he was planning on removing Mr Comey anyway.
Mr Comey has so far been silent on his sacking, except for an internal note to staff in which he said, “I’m not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you won’t either. It is done, and I will be fine.”
Mr Comey reportedly learned of his sacking after seeing a breaking news snap at an event in which he was speaking.
Now, Mr Trump appears concerned about what Mr Comey might say about his removal.
He took to Twitter to warn, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.”
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
Mr Trump also backed his communications team, who many felt he had thrown under the bus, threatening to cancel daily media briefings and instead provide handwritten responses to questions.
As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
…Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future “press briefings” and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
“As a very active president with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!,” he wrote. “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”
Despite the FBI, as well as Senate and House intelligence committees, conducting investigations into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Mr Trump said it was a Democrat conspiracy.
Again, the story that there was collusion between the Russians & Trump campaign was fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
The Fake Media is working overtime today!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
“Again, the story that there was collusion between the Russians & Trump campaign was fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election,” he wrote. “The fake media is working overtime today!”