NEW YORK (AP) — Oval Office tape recordings haven’t been part of White House history since they helped undo Richard Nixon’s administration. But then President Donald Trump suggested there might be recordings of his conversations with the FBI chief he fired.
Trump sparked questions about recordings when he tweeted that ex-FBI Director James Comey “better hope that there are no `tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.”
If there are tapes, they could prove problematic for Trump. Under the law, recordings made by presidents belong to the people and can eventually be made public. Destroying them would be a crime.
Politically, such recordings can lead to unforeseen trouble. The release of Nixon’s tapes provided fuel for the Watergate scandal, which led to his resignation in 1974.
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