Trump Caught On Tape Admitting He Kept Classified Docs: Report

Donald Trump’s claim that he had declassified the massive trove of government documents he took to Mar-a-Lago was dubious from the start. Well, CNN reported on Wednesday that federal prosecutors overseeing the probe into the documents have obtained a recording of the former president admitting that he kept a classified document containing information about a proposed attack plan against Iran.

The meeting in question reportedly took place in July 2021 at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. The former president met with biographers for his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who was not present, and members of his own staff. Several individuals participating in the conversation lacked security clearances.

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Multiple sources who described the recording to CNN say the president indicated that while he wished he could describe the contents of a document to attendees, he was both aware he had retained classified materials and that he could not flat-out declassify documents following his departure from the presidency.

According to The Guardian, which confirmed the existence of the recording, the document referenced by Trump was classified as “SECRET,” a high level of classification given to materials “the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security.”

Trump’s team responded 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 read. “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 DOJ’s continued interference in the presidential election is shameful and this meritless investigation should cease wasting the American taxpayer’s money on Democrat political objectives.”

Over the course of multiple voluntary hand-overs, and one FBI search, federal authorities have recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago since Trump’s departure from office. In September of last year, Trump claimed that the federal government had no case against him given that as president he could declassify documents just by “saying” or “thinking about it.” This is obviously not the case.

The new recording will likely be a key component in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against the former president. As previously reported by Rolling Stone, Trump’s own attorneys have seen the writing on the wall, and have told the former president to brace for an indictment.

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