- Audio recording suggests Trump kept classified document after leaving White House
- Former president charged with unlawfully handling classified documents
- Recording contradicts Trump’s claim of all removed documents being declassified
US media have obtained an audio recording in which Donald Trump appears to admit keeping a classified document after departing the White House.
On the recording, the former president can be heard shuffling through documents and stating, “This is highly confidential.”
Mr. Trump has pled not guilty to federal allegations of improperly handling classified documents.
CNN was the first to publish the approximately two-minute recording, which it claimed originated from a July 2021 meeting at Mr. Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey with several individuals working on the memoir of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Mr. Trump is heard saying “These are the papers” about a “highly confidential” document regarding Iran.
The military completed this and gave it to me,” he says. “As president, I could have declassified the information. I can no longer do so, but this remains a secret.”
It appears to be the same audio recording cited in Mr. Trump’s indictment by federal prosecutors.
However, it is unclear from the indictment whether investigators ever recovered the documents mentioned in the recording.
On two occasions, the former president allegedly showed classified documents to individuals without security clearance, including a writer and two staff members.
Mr. Trump is charged with 37 counts of unlawfully keeping classified documents and obstructing government efforts to recover them.
He has disputed guilt on numerous occasions.
The published audio recording appears to contradict his claim that all of the documents he removed from the White House were declassified.
In an interview with Fox News last week, the former president denied showing classified documents to unauthorized individuals at the Bedminster meeting.
“There was no record. Mr. Trump stated that he was presenting “newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles” about Iran and other topics. He added that he was presenting a “massive amount of papers and other materials” on the subject.
However, the recording suggests that Mr. Trump was referencing specific files.
A source familiar with the investigation also told CBS News on Tuesday that the Iran memorandum referred to by Mr. Trump in the recording is not among the confidential memoranda he is alleged to have kept after leaving the White House.
He was indicted alongside aide Walt Nauta, who was due to enter a not-guilty plea at a Tuesday hearing. This hearing was however postponed until July 6 due to his flight cancellation due to poor weather.
The trial of the former president is scheduled for August 14, but it is likely to be delayed. A judge has yet to rule on a motion by prosecutors to defer the hearing until December 11th.
On Monday, the federal magistrate presiding over the case denied prosecutors’ request to keep the list of potential witnesses secret.
