Donald Trump Caught Discussing ‘Highly Confidential’ Document in Audio Clip

In a recently surfaced audio clip, former President Donald Trump is heard discussing a purported “highly confidential” document, contradicting his later assertion that he only possessed magazine and newspaper clippings, not sensitive material.

The July 2021 recording was made during an interview at Trump’s Bedminster resort in New Jersey. The interview was conducted for a memoir being penned by Mark Meadows, Trump’s ex-chief of staff. Significantly, the audio clip is now key evidence in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over allegations of mishandling classified data.

Smith’s indictment suggests that those present at the meeting with Trump – which included a writer, a publisher, and two members of Trump’s team – were presented with classified details related to a Pentagon attack strategy on an unidentified foreign nation.

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During the recording, Trump can be heard saying, “These are the papers,” seemingly implying he is holding a confidential Pentagon document outlining plans to attack Iran. “This was done by the military, given to me.”

This audio clip might weaken Trump’s statement made in a recent Fox News interview, where he denied having any such documents during the 2021 meeting. “There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers, and everything else talking about Iran and other things,” he said on Fox. “I didn’t have a document, per se. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles.”

Earlier this month, Trump denied 37 counts related to the alleged mishandling of classified papers stored at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, brought against him as part of a 38-count indictment. The indictment also implicates his assistant and former valet Walt Nauta, who is due for arraignment Tuesday before a federal judge in Miami.

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign stated that the audio recording, initially aired on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” “provides context proving, once again, that President Trump did nothing wrong at all.” Meanwhile, Trump claimed late Monday on his social media platform that the recording “is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe.”

Stay updated with AP’s coverage of former President Donald Trump at https://bigbignews.net/donald-trump.

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