Trump admits in the audio that he has “highly classified” documents

The American channel CNN published an audio recording of the former president of the United States Donald Trump in which he admits that he is in possession “top secret” documents.which would refute his previous claims that he had previously declassified those files.

“I totally won the case with this, you know? Except it’s something highly classified, Trump said in audio files from July 2021, referring to files on an alleged US plan to invade Iran that he shared with other people on his team who could not have access to the information. “You see, as president I could have declassified them. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” added the former president, trying to show that war plans with Iran they already existed before his arrival in the White House, judging by the audio recordings transmitted by Europa Press.

The video was taken on July 21 at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and its contents were listed in an indictment filed by the Justice Department in late March. However, it is the first time that the audio recording has been made public, according to Efe. The leak comes days after the special prosecutor in charge of the case of classified documents found at Trump’s residence, Jack Smith, asked for the trial to be delayed until December.

In a court document filed last Friday night, the US government requested an extension, arguing that the case “involves classified information, so the defense will need to obtain the necessary security clearances.”

On Tuesday, the chief judge in the case ordered a jury trial to begin on August 14 in Fort Pierce, 208 kilometers from Miami.

“I’ll give you an example. He said I want to attack Iran. (…) They handed me this (this is unofficial). This was his. This was both his and the US Department of Defense. (…) I didn’t plan this, Trump said in some recordings he knew about, reports CNN.

The former president has repeatedly denied guilt and has also assured that he has the right to documents that he has already “unilaterally declassified without going through any formal process.”

Trump is fighting back 37 criminal reports ranging from willful concealment of national defense information to conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection with the investigation against him over more than 300 classified documents found at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Likewise, the former president did not inform the Secret Service that he was storing boxes of classified documents. The tycoon would go so far as to order his assistant to move the papers from one place to another so that his legal team would not see them, even suggesting their destruction.