Federal prosecutors have a 2021 audio recording of Donald Trump admitting to keeping a sensitive Pentagon paper after leaving the office, according to CNN, citing sources with knowledge of the situation.
The US-based news site stated that it did not hear the audio tape, but cited the official to infer that Trump purposefully preserved sensitive material after leaving office. The documents describe a “potential attack on Iran. (https://flossdental.com) ”
According to CNN, the video is roughly two minutes long and was part of a much longer discussion that took place in July 2021 at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
It is being reported that several guests at the July conference reportedly lacked the security clearance required to listen in on talks involving sensitive information.
According to CNN’s sources, the audio tape captures Trump addressing his desire to publicly release information on a potential Iran attack while acknowledging that he could not declassify the information at the time because he was no longer president.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who has led the Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump, has focused on the meeting as part of the criminal probe into the 45th president’s management of national security secrets.
According to official sources, this recording would be a “important” piece of evidence in a future case against Trump, who has previously stated that he can keep presidential records and “automatically” declassify papers.
Trump’s press secretary responds
Reacting to the report, a Trump spokesperson said in a statement: “Leaks from radical partisans behind this political persecution are designed to inflame tensions and continue the media’s harassment of President Trump and his supporters. It’s just more proof that when it comes to President Trump, there are absolutely no depths to which they will not sink as they pursue their witch hunts.”
The Department of Justice began openly probing Trump’s mismanagement of papers in August 2022, when FBI agents raided the former US president’s Mar-A-Lago house in Florida and discovered a cache of sensitive materials.
In front of a federal grand jury, FBI agents have previously questioned high-level witnesses regarding the Iran paper.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal story, Smith, who is nearing the end of his testimony and evidence-gathering phase into Trump’s handling of secret data, is making a decision on whether or not to charge the former president with a crime.