May 12, 2017

Trump Threatens Comey With Possibility of Secret “Tapes”

He also said he may end daily press briefings.

Shcherbak Alexander/TASS/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump fired a warning shot at former FBI Director James Comey on Friday, with a tweet that appeared to insinuate that he might possess recordings of their past conversations.

The implicit threat comes as the latest development in the ongoing uproar sparked by Trump’s decision to unceremoniously fire Comey on Tuesday. The potential existence of any recordings comes with a certain degree of irony, in light of Trump’s continued baseless claim that Barack Obama illegally wiretapped him and his associates.

Since Comey’s shocking dismissal, the White House’s justifications for his dismissal have unraveled: Administration officials initially claimed the president was operating under the recommendation of the Justice Department and that he had lost confidence in Comey due to his handling of the Clinton email investigation. But in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt that aired Thursday night, Trump contradicted the narrative that his own administration—including the vice president himself—had been peddling to the press. He told Holt that he planned to fire the FBI director “regardless of recommendation” and suggested that the bureau’s ongoing Russia probe was the cause of Comey’s ouster. “I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made–up story,” Trump said. He also admitted to repeatedly asking Comey if he was under federal investigation for possible connections to Russia. The New York Times reported on Friday that on one of these occasions, Trump summoned Comey to dinner and demanded his loyalty.

During his Friday morning tweetstorm, Trump also suggested he may put an end to daily press briefings.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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