In a stunning twist to the ongoing legal saga surrounding former President Donald Trump, new revelations have emerged from an audio recording that has sent shockwaves throughout the political landscape. According to reports from Semafor and ABC News, Trump now admits that he was lying when he previously claimed to possess secret information, captured on the recorded conversation.
The audio, which was recently obtained and aired by CNN, features Trump discussing what he referred to as classified documents relating to a potential battle plan for Iran. Speaking to a writer involved in a memoir by Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, the former president stated, “These are the papers. This was done by the military and given to me. See, as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
“These are the papers. This was done by the military and given to me,” Trump said to a writer, supposedly referring to a potential battle plan for Iran. “See, as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
The conversation took place at Trump’s Bedminster golf resort and aligns with details described in the indictment filed against him. Trump currently faces 37 federal counts related to the alleged willful retention of classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth, it was bravado,” Trump told Semafor and ABC News on board his plane on Tuesday. “I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.
I just held up a whole pile of — my desk is loaded up with papers. I have papers from 25 different things,” he said. A reporter asked the former president if he regretted how he handled classified documents upon leaving the White House.
“No, I have no regrets,” he said. “I didn’t have a classified document. There was no classified document on my desk.”
Trump’s claims of having declassified all classified material in his possession after leaving office have been widely disputed. Legal experts from various backgrounds have criticized his defense, asserting that he did not have the authority to unilaterally determine the classification status of documents.
