FBI/JAMES COMEY/POLITICS: “President Trump’s abrupt dismissal last week of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and his subsequent allusion to taped conversations with Mr. Comey continued to roil Washington on Sunday [5-14-17].
In televised appearances, lawmakers in both parties said that the recordings could or should come to light if they exist, while a former director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., suggested that Mr. Trump was contributing to an erosion of democratic institutions.
Speaking on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said the prospect that a conversation with Mr. Comey was recorded must be taken seriously.
‘You can’t be cute about tapes,’ he said. ‘If there are any tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned over. I doubt if there are. But we need to clear the air.’ “
-Jonah Engel bromwich and Niraj Chokshi, “Senators Voice Concerns About Trump’s Threat of Taped Conversations,” The New York Times online, May 14, 2017