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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — President Trump appeared to acknowledge on Friday that his earlier tweet hinting of taped conversations with James B. Comey was intended to influence the fired F.B.I. director’s testimony before Congress. In an interview, the president emphasized that he committed “no obstruction” of the inquiries into whether his campaign colluded with Russia. Hours later, Mr. Trump accused the Obama administration of failing to prevent or punish Moscow for meddling in last fall’s presidential election before the vote. It was not immediately clear if Mr. Trump was admitting for the first time that he now believes Russia interfered in the election, just a day after he ridiculed that intelligence assessment as a Democratic “HOAX.” During the Friday morning interview with “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Trump sought to explain that his tweets lambasting Mr. Comey were referring to the possibility that anyone could have taped those discussions. On Thursday, he admitted that he, himself, had not. “I’ve been reading about it for the last couple of months, about the seriousness of the horribleness of the situation with surveillance all over the place,” the president said in the interview. “So you never know what’s out there. But I didn’t tape, and I don’t have any tape and I didn’t tape.” When the Fox interviewer suggested that the possible existence of recordings might have made sure Mr. Comey “stayed honest in those hearings,” Mr. Trump paused before responding, “Well, it wasn’... Link to the full article to read more