The publication of a sound recording could put accused former US President Donald Trump in the case of secret government documents that need explanation. “As president, I could have released them, now I can’t,” Trump said in the 2021 recording published by US broadcaster CNN on Monday night (local time) of papers he apparently shows interlocutors.
Specifically, it appears to be about a secret Pentagon document about an attack on Iran that Trump is showing.
The existence of the recording was already known – its copy is a central part of the indictment. The media also reported the sound recording, which had not yet been published. Trump repeatedly stated that classified information was no longer classified after it was taken to his private home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The recording could undermine Trump’s argument.
FBI at Mar-a-Lago
FBI federal police searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in August and confiscated several confidential documents from his tenure, some with the highest level of classification. By storing confidential government documents in private rooms after his term, Trump could have made himself liable to prosecution. He was charged in the case in mid-June and had to appear in person in federal court in Miami. Trump pleaded “not guilty”. It was the first time that a former US president had appeared in federal court to face an indictment. (apa, dpa)