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White House spokeswoman says she will 'try to look under the couches' to find secret Oval Office taping system

Mr Comey testified a month after he was fired by Donald Trump

Andrew Buncombe
New York
Thursday 08 June 2017 13:05 EDT
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (whitehouse.gov)

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The White House has said it will “search under the couches” for tapes of any conversations between Donald Trump and James Comey, after the former FBI Director said he hoped any recordings would be released.

“Sure, I’ll try to look under the couches,” said spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, when asked by reporters at the White House if she would find out if there was a secret recording system.

The issue was triggered by comments Mr Comey made while testifying on Capitol Hill before the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I’ve seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Mr Comey told the senators.

Mr Comey said he spoke with Mr Trump on numerous occasions and said that if the president had recorded those conversations, he hoped he would make them available. “He should release all the tapes,” he said.

It was Mr Trump himself who had initially raised the suggestion that there recordings of their conversations when he tweeted last month: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.”

Ms Huckabee Sanders disputed Mr Comey’s claim that the White House had lied about and defamed, both him, and the FBI.

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