June 27 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump can be heard on a new audio recording acknowledging he did not have the authority to declassify “highly confidential” materials he took with him after leaving the White House more than two years ago.
The two-minute recording of Trump, taken in July 2021 and obtained by CNN, The New York Times and CBS News, is from the same meeting in which a previous recording of Trump emerged earlier in the month, with Trump’s own words suggesting he was fully aware the documents he shared had never been declassified, contrary to what the former president has acknowledged publicly about the trove of materials.
The tapes now become key evidence in the case against the former president, who pleaded not guilty this month to 37 federal charges alleging he willfully mishandled U.S. secrets.
Trump’s voice on the new tape has been cited by government prosecutors in the indictment, alleging Trump absconded with covert documents after leaving office, discussed the secrets with unauthorized personnel, and obstructed efforts by the Justice Department and National Archives to get the materials back.
Last August, more than 100 top secret papers were seized during a raid at Trump’s Mar-a- Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., after numerous boxes of documents were taken from the White House during his final days as president.
Trump, who is the first president in history to be indicted on federal criminal charges, said previously that he had the power as president to “automatically” declassify the secret papers.
In an interview with Fox News last week, Trump claimed he had referenced “newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles” in a separate recording of him that emerged earlier this month from the same July 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club — about six months after his term ended — when the former president and his aides sat down with authors of a memoir on former chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was not in attendance.
On the previously released recording, Trump can be heard complaining about news reports that said Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley feared Trump, fresh off an election loss, was planning to manufacture a crisis during his final days as president by launching airstrikes against Iran.
A transcript of the newest audio recording, however, provided more context on the full range of the conversation and suggested Trump was referring to a specific document in front of him at the time, and not just speaking about what he had gleaned from news reports.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Trump can be heard saying while shuffling “a big pile of papers,” that were audible in the background. “This thing just came up,” Trump said, adding: “This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”
“Wow,” another voice says, followed by the sound of papers crinkling in the room.
“Let’s see here,” Trump follows up before saying, “Look.”
After a beat, someone can be heard moving about the room before the group erupts in laughter.
“This totally wins my case, you know,” Trump then says, noting that the materials he had just shared were “highly confidential, secret. This is secret information.”
“Isn’t that incredible?” Trump says later, adding, “This was done by the military and given to me.”
Trump then seems to suggest that the book writers use the information in their work. “I think we can probably, right?” Trump asks, to which a woman’s voice responds, “I don’t know, we’ll have to see, you know, we’ll have to try to figure out a ” — at which time Trump jumped in, saying “Declassify it.”
Trump continued: “See, as president I could have declassified it, but now I can’t.”
“Now we have a problem,” the woman responds through laughter.
“It’s so cool,” the former president then said.
During the conversation, Trump also mentioned former New York Rep. Anthony D. Weiner’s role in the investigation into Hillary Clinton‘s private email server when she was Secretary of State.
The indictment against Trump is the culmination of a nearly seven-month investigation by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November to look into the former president’s failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his handling of secret documents after leaving office.
More than 300 classified documents have been recovered from Trump so far.
Trump continues to maintain his innocence, with his attorneys doubling down on the former president’s right to declassify government materials before leaving office.
“The audio tape provides context proving, once again, that President Trump did nothing wrong at all,” said Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung.