Listen: Audio of Trump suggests he discussed classified Iran document; ex-US President slams 'witch hunt'
In a 2-minute audio recording aired on CNN, former President Donald Trump purportedly boasts about having a classified document during a 2021 meeting and acknowledged he failed to declassify it before leaving office.
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FollowAn audio clip of former president Donald Trump allegedly bragging about having a classified documents during a 2021 meeting has been made public by American media outlets. In the roughly two-minute recording, which CNN aired for the first time on Monday during 'Anderson Cooper 360', Trump acknowledged he failed to declassify it before leaving office.
The audio tape is a key piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith's charge of President Trump for the improper handling of confidential material. Trump conducted the interview in July 2021 at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club for writers of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows' memoir.
Trump allegedly made the claim while quoting Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about having a secret Pentagon paper outlining preparations to strike Iran.
“Well, with Milley – let me see that. I’ll show you an example,” Trump is heard saying, according to the media reports.
“He said that I wanted to attack Iran – isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers. This thing just came up, look. This was him. They presented me this,” he says, reshuffling the papers.
“It is like highly confidential, secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack and …” said Trump, according to the transcript.
“See, as president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t, you know. But this is classic,” Trump was heard saying. “Isn’t that interesting? It’s so cool.”
At one point in the recording, Trump is heard saying, “You probably didn’t believe me, but now you believe me. It’s incredible.”
Special counsel Jack Smith used the meeting recording as evidence in his indictment of President Trump and his adviser Walt Nauta.
On June 14, federal prosecutors filed 37 counts against Trump in relation to his alleged retention of secret government records after leaving office. Trump entered a not guilty plea to all of them. On June 19, he said there were no secret materials present when the recording was made.
As soon as the tape was made public, Trump blasted Smith on social media.
“The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and ‘spun’ a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,” he said.
“This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!” he wrote.
Trump's reference to what he claims is "highly confidential" and his apparent display of documents to other attendees at the meeting could cast doubt on his subsequent assertions that he didn't have any documents with him in a Fox News Channel interview.
"There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers, and everything else talking about Iran and other things," Trump said on Fox. "And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn't have a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles."
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