WASHINGTON: Former US president Donald Trump can be heard discussing secret documents he had apparently held on to after leaving the White House and acknowledging they had not been declassified, in an audio recording aired by US media.
The two-minute clip, played by CNN late Monday and later obtained by ABC and CBS, comes from an interview Trump gave at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club in July 2021 for people working on a memoir by his former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Parts of the recording’s transcript were cited as evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s 49-page indictment of Trump on charges he had mishandled classified documents after leaving office.
The audio file includes a moment when Trump seems to indicate he is holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran.
“These are the papers,” Trump says in the recording, a quote that was not included in the indictment.
He also refers to something as “highly confidential” and “this is secret information” as he seems to be showing something to the others in the room. “This was done by the military and given to me,” Trump continues, before noting that one would need to “declassify it” for it to be used in the book.
“You see, as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know,” he says. “Now we have a problem,” one of other people responds. “Isn’t that interesting? It’s so cool,” Trump says, just before the recording ends with him calling for someone to bring in some Cokes.
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