WASHINGTON -  President Donald Trump is warning that former FBI Director James Comey "better hope" that there are no "tapes" of their conversations.

Trump tweeted Friday, "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"

Trump fired Comey on Tuesday, later saying that "he wasn't doing a good job."

In the termination letter to Comey, Trump thanked him for telling the president "three times" that he personally is not under investigation for collusion with Russia during his 2016 campaign.

Trump said in an NBC News interview Thursday that Comey told him once over dinner and twice by telephone that he isn't under investigation.

Comey has not commented since he was fired.

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Original story:

President Donald Trump is contradicting previous White House explanations for the firing of James Comey as FBI director.

Trump says in an interview with NBC News that he had planned to fire Comey all along, regardless of the recommendations of top Justice Department officials.

Initially the White House cited a Justice Department memo criticizing Comey's handling of last year's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails as the impetus for Trump's decision.

On Capitol Hill, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe strongly disputed the White House's assertion that Comey had been fired in part because Comey had lost the confidence of the FBI's rank-and-file.

In the NBC interview, Trump derided Comey as a "showboat" and "grandstander" and said Comey had left the FBI in "virtual turmoil."

Trump says his busy schedule makes it "not possible" for his staff to speak at the podium with "perfect accuracy."

Trump on Friday defended the struggle by his administration to come up with a consistent timeline and rationale for the abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey this week.

Trump tweeted, "As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!"

He added, "Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future 'press briefings' and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy-?"