US House panel wants formal response from Trump on Comey tapes

Trump earlier claimed having tapes of his conversation with Comey

WASHINGTON DC: The head of the US House of Representatives' Russia investigation said on Friday he wanted a formal response from President Donald Trump to a request for records about conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey.

The House panel said on June 9 it had written to Don McGahn, the White House counsel, asking about the existence of any recordings or memos covering Comey's conversations with Trump and asked that copies of the materials be provided to the panel by June 23. Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday, a day before the deadline, that he did not know if there were recordings of his conversations with Comey, but he did not make or have any such recordings.



Republican Representative Mike Conaway, who is leading the House Intelligence Committee's investigation, told reporters Friday morning that Trump's tweet was not a sufficient response. Adam Schiff, the committee's top Democrat, said in a statement on Thursday that Trump's Twitter comment stopped short of denying that the White House had tapes or recordings, and said the White House must respond in writing.



Representatives for Conaway and Schiff did not respond on Friday afternoon to queries about whether the White House had met the deadline to provide the materials. White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said at a news briefing that the administration would respond.