The aide to the former president recorded several conversations, including one in which Trump is said to have acknowledged he retained a classified paper
Reports that prosecutors have obtained a recording of Donald Trump admitting he kept hold of a classified document after he left the White House has raised speculation on how much further evidence could be retrieved from a laptop belonging to an aide of the former president.
CNN first reported that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team had an audio clip of the former president discussing in July 2021 how he held on to classified Pentagon material about a potential attack on Iran, and that he was aware that he no longer had the power to declassify the document since he left the White House.
Trump has frequently denied any wrongdoing in connection with his retaining of classified materials, claiming that he declassified all documents before he left office. However, Trump’s lawyers have never repeated this argument in official court filings during the investigation, with the obtained audio clip suggesting Trump knew he did not declassify all the materials he was in possession of.
In a statement about the audio reports, a spokesperson for the former president said “leaks from radical partisans” are designed to “inflame tensions and continue the media’s harassment” of Trump and his supporters.
