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Former President Donald Trump has admitted in a 2021 audiotaped meeting that he had stored "secret" military information that he had not declassified.
"As president, I could have declassified, but now I can't ," Trump said, according to the transcript published by CNN.
Trump was indicted Thursday on seven counts in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the misuse of classified documents. Details from the indictment have not been made public, so it is not known if any of the seven counts refer to the 2021 taped meeting. However, the tape is significant because it shows that Trump was aware that the records he received at Mar-a-Lago after left the White House were still classified.
Meanwhile, publicly, Trump has claimed otherwise, saying all the documents he brought with him to his Florida residence are declassified and that prosecutors are trying to derail his 2024 presidential campaign.
CNN reports that the audio recording of Trump's meeting in 2021 was originally obtained by two people who were working on the autobiography of former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
The transcript of the audio recording suggests that Trump is showing the document spoken in the wiretap to people who were in the room. Several sources have told CNN that the recording captures the sounds of paper rustling, as if Trump were waving the document around, though it's not clear if it was the actual Iran document.
"The secret. This is confidential information. Look, look at this. This was done by the military and given to me ," Trump says at one point, according to the transcript.
Trump was complaining at the meeting about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley. The meeting came shortly after The New Yorker published a story by Susan Glasser detailing how, in the final days of Trump's presidency, Milley instructed the Joint Chiefs to ensure that Trump did not issue illegal orders and that he was informed if he had any concern.
" Well, with Milley, let me see him, I'll give you an example. He said he wanted to attack Iran. Isn't that amazing? I have a big stack of papers, this thing just came out. Look . This was it. They presented this to me, presented this to me. This was it. This was the Department of Defense. All kinds of things – long pages, look. Wait a minute, let's see here. I just found it, didn't I is amazing? That totally wins my case, you know. Except it's like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this, " Trump is heard saying in the Transcript.
Federal prosecutors have been investigating Trump for mishandling classified documents sent to Mar-a-Lago and obstructing the investigation. Meanwhile, Trump's lawyer said the former president was served a summons by the Justice Department to appear in court on Tuesday in south Florida.
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