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Trump shows secret papers

“These are the papers,” Trump says in the audio recording, referring to something he describes as “strictly confidential” and apparently shows other people in the room, CNN reports. The statements on the audio recording are in stark contrast to what the former US president previously claimed about his actions and the status of government documents found in his possession.

Specifically, the recording appears to be about a secret Pentagon document about an attack on Iran that Trump is showing around. According to the voices, there are several people in the room. “As president I could have released them, now I can’t,” Trump said in the two-minute recording from 2021 published Monday evening (local time) by US broadcaster CNN.

Here’s Trump’s full audio recording:

What does the publication mean for Trump?

The existence of the recording was already known – the copy is a central part of the indictment. The media also reported the sound recording, which had not yet been published. Trump has repeatedly claimed classified information was no longer classified after it was taken to his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The inclusion could now greatly undermine Trump’s argument.

Last week, the ex-president said in an interview with Fox News that he “never carried a classified document.” It was all about newspaper articles and documents that he, as president, would have long since lifted the secrecy.

With the statements from the audio recording, Trump is now actually emerging as a liar, as he describes the documents there as “strictly confidential”. He also says that as president he could have released the documents, but not now – showing that he himself does not believe his reasoning regarding the status of the documents found.

Trump jokes about Hillary Clinton

Another excerpt from the recording seems particularly ironic: Trump and his staff joke about Hillary Clinton’s careless handling of emails during her time as Secretary of State. This was after Trump himself described the documents in question as “classified information”.

“Hillary has been printing that out all along, hasn’t he? Your private emails,” one aide jokingly tells Trump. He responds:

The people in the room burst into laughter. Anthony Weiner was a former Democratic congressman who was forced to resign over a sexting scandal. Hillary Clinton was criticized during her time as Secretary of State for sending emails from a private account instead of using the official, secure federal servers.

Trump’s response

On the internet portal “Truth Social”, which he co-founded, Trump described the publication of the recording as electoral influence and part of an “ongoing witch hunt”. He accused Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith of being “mentally disturbed”. Smith, the Justice Department, and the FBI illegally leaked the recording to the press and distorted the facts — in fact, the recording is more of an ex-presidential exoneration for him.

The background

The Federal Police FBI had searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August and seized numerous classified documents from his tenure, some of them at the highest level of classification. Storing confidential government documents in private rooms after his term in office could have made Trump a criminal offence. He was charged in the affair in mid-June and was ordered to appear in person in federal court in Miami. Trump pleaded “not guilty”. It was the first time a former US president had appeared in federal court to face charges. (con/sda/dpa)