Trump: ‘I did not record former FBI chief Comey’

US President Donald Trump has said that he did not make any secret recordings of former FBI chief James Comey, despite an earlier hint to the contrary.

“With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are any ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings,” he said in a tweet.

Days after he fired Comey in May, Trump had tweeted: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations.”

Comey was heading the FBI inquiry into alleged Russian interference in last year’s US presidential election, and whether the Trump team had any links to Moscow, when he was fired on 9 May.

In the days that followed, US newspapers reported allegations surrounding a private meeting that Trump had held with Comey in the Oval Office in February.

They included the claim that Trump had asked Comey to drop an FBI investigation into fired National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.

Appearing before Congress earlier this month, Comey testified that Trump had asked him to “let go” any possible prosecution of Flynn for lying to federal agents about a conversation with the Russian ambassador.

He said that the president had asked him in no uncertain terms to give assurances that he would be loyal.

When asked whether he though the conversation had been recorded, Comey replied: “Lordy, I hope there are tapes”.