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Topline
An audio clip from 2021 of former President Donald Trump discussing classified documents in his possession after leaving office was aired by CNN on Monday night, a revelation that comes weeks after the former president was indicted in a federal case over his alleged mishandling of such documents.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump waits to be introduced at the Oakland County Republican Party's ... [+] Lincoln Day dinner at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan.
Key Facts
In the two-minute audio clip, Trump talks about being in possession of “a big pile of papers,” including what is purportedly a classified plan about attacking Iran.
According to CNN, the audio clip was recorded in July 2021 during a meeting between Trump and publishers on a memoir for his White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at his golf club and resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
In the recording, the former president attempts to push back on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley’s claim that he was worried about Trump starting a conflict with Iran after losing the 2020 election.
Trump tells the interviewer, “They presented me this – this is off the record, but they presented me this…This was the Defense Department and him [Milley]”
The former president is then heard arguing that these papers prove his case “you know, except that it is like highly confidential, secret, this is secret information.”
Trump is yet to comment on this revelation on social media but his campaign spokesperson told various outlets that the tape “provides context proving, once again, that President Trump did nothing wrong at all.”
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