US media has obtained an audio recording in which Donald Trump appears to acknowledge retaining a classified document after his departure from the White House.
However, it should be noted that the recording has not been independently verified by the BBC or other sources.
In the approximately two-minute clip, the former president can be heard going through papers and stating, “This is highly confidential.” Mr. Trump has entered a plea of not guilty to federal charges related to the mishandling of sensitive files.
CNN was the first to publish the recording, stating that it originates from a July 2021 interview Mr. Trump conducted with individuals involved in the writing of a memoir by his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
During the recording, Mr. Trump can be heard mentioning “these are the papers” and making reference to a document he describes as “highly confidential.” This aligns with an audio recording cited by federal prosecutors in their indictment of the former president.
Prosecutors allege he showed classified documents to people without security clearance on two occasions, including a writer and two members of staff, in one instance in July 2021 at his golf club in New Jersey.
Mr Trump is facing 37 counts of illegally retaining classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to get them back.
He has denied any wrongdoing and has said that all documents he took with him from the White House were declassified.
During the exchange, released by CNN and the Washington Post on Monday, Mr Trump is heard describing a document that he alleges is about possibly attacking Iran.
“He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t it amazing?” Mr Trump says near the beginning of the clip.
“I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look,” he says.
“See as president I could have declassified it,” he says. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
In an interview last week with Fox News, Mr Trump denied that he provided secret documents to people unauthorised to view them.
“There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things,” Mr Trump said.