I don’t have a very good (or even halfway decent) memory for phrases, so I have no idea, and since no-one else heard it, I assume it wasn’t said. Still, it seemed clear to me that the request was intended for the talk to be off the record, in the journalistic sense.
The phrase “no recording and no transcript,” which you seem to agree was said explicitly, seems to indicate that he didn’t want there to be a record of what he said. At that point, maybe you didn’t technically do anything he requested you not to do, but it seems like the responsible and decent thing would be to have asked Sam if he minded.
I don’t have a very good (or even halfway decent) memory for phrases, so I have no idea, and since no-one else heard it, I assume it wasn’t said. Still, it seemed clear to me that the request was intended for the talk to be off the record, in the journalistic sense.
The phrase “no recording and no transcript,” which you seem to agree was said explicitly, seems to indicate that he didn’t want there to be a record of what he said. At that point, maybe you didn’t technically do anything he requested you not to do, but it seems like the responsible and decent thing would be to have asked Sam if he minded.