In a newly released audio recording, former President Donald Trump shuffles through papers while speaking about a “secret, classified document” in his possession after leaving office. The contents of the recording, made in July 2021, are quoted in the Justice Department’s 37-count indictment against Trump. The evidence is expected to be a central piece in the government’s case about how Trump allegedly mishandled classified documents.
In the recording, the former president talks as if he’s showing a highly classified document on U.S. war plans against Iran with people not cleared to know it exists.
According to the special counsel’s indictment, those people include a writer who was working on Mark Meadows’ memoir, the publisher, and two of Trump’s staff members.
In the conversation obtained by CNN, Trump says it was Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley who wanted to embark on a military conflict with Iran, not Trump himself. Trump claims he had the papers to prove it.
“Well, with Milley, uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. 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, this is off the record, but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him,” Trump said in the recording.
The former president knew he was being recorded during the casual conversation. In the recording, he says he wanted to declassify the sensitive military document, but wasn’t able to because he was no longer president.
“This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is, like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump said.
Prosecutors say that Trump acknowledging that he could no longer declassify the document undermines his argument that he had declassified all the documents in his possession before leaving the White House. The two-minute clip is just a snippet from the recording which officials say is over an hour long.
According to the Straight Arrow News Media Miss tool, coverage of this audio recording is being shared mostly by left-leaning and center-oriented news outlets. Right-leaning media is largely leaving the recording out of the news cycle.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials. He has denied all charges and denounced the probe as a political witch hunt.
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