President Donald Trump is seen in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Photo / AP
President Donald Trump is seen in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Photo / AP
President Donald Trump is expected to make an announcement this week on whether any recordings exist of his private conversations with former FBI Director James Comey.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he expected an announcement "this week" on the possibility of tapes, according to news.com.au.
Trump fired Comeyin May and has suggested - but refused to confirm - that he may have tapes of his discussions with the ousted director.
FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo / AP
The FBI was investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible contacts with Trump campaign associates.
Spicer also said that he did not know whether Trump believed Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, despite the conclusion of 16 US intelligence agencies that the country did, The Washington Post reports.
Spicer was asked a yes-or-no question near the end of a press briefing: Does Trump believe the Russian Government interfered in the 2016 election?
"I have not sat down and talked to him about that specific thing," Spicer said, resorting to the fallback answer he frequently gives in response to difficult or controversial questions - that he has not had a chance to ask the President his views.
Reminded by the questioner, Trey Yingst of One America News Network, that 16 US intelligence agencies had concluded that Russia did engage in cyberattacks to influence the election, Spicer said, "I understand. I've seen the reports."
As to whether Trump shares that conclusion, Spicer said, "I have not sat down and asked him about his specific reaction to them."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer smiles as he answers a question during a briefing at the White House. Photo / AP
Trump has been inconsistent in how he talks about Russia's interference in the election. He routinely dismisses the matter entirely as "fake news", yet in a January 11 news conference, about a week before being sworn in as President, Trump admitted for the first time that Russia hacked the email accounts of Democratic officials.
"As far as hacking, I think it was Russia," Trump said. "Hacking's bad, and it shouldn't be done. But look at the things that were hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking."
Around the same time, Reince Priebus, then the incoming White House chief of staff, said on Fox News Sunday that Trump accepts that Russia was behind the interference.
In April, however, Trump suggested in an interview that China, as opposed to Russia, might have been behind the cyber attacks.
"If you don't catch a hacker, okay, in the act, it's very hard to say who did the hacking," Trump said on CBS' Face the Nation. He added that the perpetrator "could have been China, could have been a lot of different groups".
The House Intelligence Committee has asked White House counsel Don McGahn to provide an answer to the ongoing question about tapes by Thursday.
Meanwhile, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is scheduled to meet top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller will meet with top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Photo / AP
Mueller is investigating Russian meddling in the election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
Mueller will talk to the chairman of the committee, Republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and the top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California.
