EPATrump at an event at its Bedminister Golf Club in 2022
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 07:50
US prosecutors have incriminating audio recordings of Donald Trump about classified documents, according to CNN. He acknowledges that the document in his hands was not officially released.
According to the American news channel, the recordings were made after Trump left office. CNN did not hear the recording itself, sources have described its contents. The former president would say that he wants to share the information from the document, but that he is aware of the limited options he had as president to release documents.
Last August, tens of thousands of documents were seized during a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Those documents also included files that were classified as top secret or even state secret. In doing so, he may have violated the US Espionage Act.
‘Thinking about it is releasing’
Earlier, Trump stated in an interview with Fox News that as president he can change the classification of documents with a verbal statement. “Even by just thinking about it,” Trump argued. “In other words, when I left the White House, they were no longer a secret.” The new recording contradicts that defense.
The recording on which Trump would admit that he knew he had documents that had not been released is said to have been made in 2021 at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey. There, the former president spoke with people who helped his former chief of staff Mark Meadows write his autobiography.
For a few minutes, Trump discusses how he no longer has the presidential power to release documents. He suggests he should have done that when he was still in the White House. The document is said to have been about Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It’s so secret that only a handful of people in the U.S. government are aware of its contents.
Conclusion is approaching
Trump says news of the recording was brought out to thwart his presidential campaign. A Meadows attorney declined to comment on the news.
Prosecutors in the criminal investigation into the president have been interviewing witnesses surrounding the shootings in recent months. Special counsel Jack Smith is approaching the final stages of the investigation in which he may or may not recommend prosecuting Trump for handling the classified documents.
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