# Recording the President **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543 "2018-01-13T15:26:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/1 "2018-01-13T15:26:26Z")
Is every person who meets with the President searched first? How hard would it have been for Comey (or anyone else) to hide a recorder and actually use it? Any special law that prohibits it? Normally, under federal law, as long as one persons consents its O.K. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/2 "2018-01-13T22:17:01Z")
Based on my quick reading of [18 U.S. 2511](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2511) I believe it’s illegal for **anyone** to make an unauthorized recording of \*\*anyone \*\*without that person’s consent when they’re under federal jurisdiction. IANAL, laws in your state may vary, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/3 "2018-01-13T23:28:35Z")
How did all those recordings of Nixon happen? And, I have heard LBJ recordings, somewhere. He had a dirty mouth, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/4 "2018-01-13T23:41:58Z")
I believe kunilou’s cite involves a third party taping a conversation of two others without consent. Washington D.C. is a one-party consent “state”. If one of the two parties of a conversation consents, it is legal to tape a conversation. I don’t know if special rules apply to the President. > **[Fact or Fiction: In Washington D.C., It Is Legal to Record Private...](https://www.robertreeveslaw.com/blog/washington-record-conversations/)** > > Can private conversations be recorded in Washington D.C., and therefore in the White House, without the consent or knowledge of all participants? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/5 "2018-01-14T00:18:37Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > How did all those recordings of Nixon happen? Nixon himself had the recordings made in his office. He thought they would be valuable historical & legal records. (And they were.) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/6 "2018-01-14T00:21:38Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > How did all those recordings of Nixon happen? Nixon recorded them. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/7 "2018-01-14T00:28:32Z")
Oh, okay. Got it. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/8 "2018-01-14T00:52:54Z")
In fact, there was an infamous incident involving\* an 18½ minute gap on one of the tapes during the Watergate investigation. > **[Nixon White House tapes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_White_House_tapes#The_18_1/2-minute_gap)** > > The Nixon White House tapes are audio recordings of conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Nixon administration officials, Nixon family members, and White House staff, produced between 1971 and 1973. > In February 1971, a sound-activated taping system was installed in the Oval Office, including in Nixon's Wilson desk, using Sony TC-800B open-reel tape recorders to capture audio transmitted by telephone taps and concealed microphones. The system was expanded to include other roo... (\*Alliteration courtesy of Spiro T. Agnew :D) ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/9 "2018-01-14T22:12:45Z")
Still no answer to my questions. Are people checked for recording devices and would it be illegal to record POTUS secretly? Imagine if Comey recording his meeting. It would certainly provide some answers. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/10 "2018-01-15T02:53:44Z")
Probably most people meeting with the President have their cell phones with them, and obviously those can act as recording devices. Yet those are not taken away from people. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/11 "2018-01-15T03:33:45Z")
Just a guess, but I doubt anyone cleared by the Secret Service to meet with the president on a regular basis, such as the FBI director, the secretary of state, or the vice president is routinely searched before every meeting with him. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/12 "2018-01-16T19:49:58Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Just a guess, but I doubt anyone cleared by the Secret Service to meet with the president on a regular basis, such as the FBI director, the secretary of state, or the vice president is routinely searched before every meeting with him. My guess, too. But given the way things are going, I’d record any meeting with Trump. Even if I told no one about it, it would be nice to have an ace in the hole in case something really significant was said and then later flatly denied. In my former life secretly recording people was an everyday thing. The agency’s policy that you were not permitted to make such recordings without the permission of a supervisor. Even then I thought one of the main reasons for the policy was to prevent subordinates from recording superiors. Even if you proved the superior was lying, you’d be out of a job for violating the policy. To this day, I sometimes wish that I recorded my promotional interview with the chief. I’m certain I could have sued and won but suing for not getting a promotion didn’t really sit well with me. Had I known then what I know now, I might have done it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/13 "2018-01-16T20:22:49Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Probably most people meeting with the President have their cell phones with them, and obviously those can act as recording devices. Yet those are not taken away from people. Guess again: [https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/10/white-house-cell-phone-ban-333734](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/10/white-house-cell-phone-ban-333734) ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/14 "2018-01-16T22:30:35Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Probably most people meeting with the President have their cell phones with them, and obviously those can act as recording devices. Yet those are not taken away from people. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Guess again: [https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/10/white-house-cell-phone-ban-333734](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/10/white-house-cell-phone-ban-333734) Senator Dick Durbin emphasized this weekend that as a matter of course, all meeting attendees at the White House have cell phones confiscated. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/15 "2018-01-17T02:19:57Z")
Unrelated to the current ban, but I attended an event at the Obama White House about six weeks before the 2016 election. All attendees had their phones confiscated. I wasn’t told why. (I had been to the WH earlier in the administration and was allowed to keep the phone so this represented a change in policy.) ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-the-president/806543/16 "2018-01-17T04:12:45Z")
I did a little filming at the White House in, say, 2011? We were allowed to keep our phones, but we were only in the press room (which is tiny!) and on a cold rainy day, smelled like damp smelly socks. Every. Single. Person. in the room from sound recorders to correspondents was texting or playing games on their phones.