2023-06-27 03:50:36
network publishedCNNAl-Akhbariya recorded an audio recording that it said was of the former US President, Donald Trump, in which he talks about his possession of documents related to Iran, which were not declassified.
The recording, broadcast on Anderson Cooper 360, is an “important part” of the indictment filed by attorney Jack Smith against Trump for mishandling classified information.
The recording includes talk about the plans of the US Department of Defense (The Pentagon), led by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, to launch an attack on Iran.
“Here are the cards,” Trump said in the audio recording as he discussed the Pentagon’s attack plans against Iran, a quote not included in the indictment.
“Look, as president, I could have declassified that, now I can’t… Isn’t that interesting?” the recording reads.
The audio recording comes from an interview that the former US president gave in July 2021 at his resort in New Jersey to people working on the memoirs of Mark Meadows, the former Trump White House chief of staff, according to CNN.
The attorney’s office, Jack Smith, declined to comment to CNN.
“The audio recording proves once again that President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong,” Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Cheung said in a statement.
According to the newspaper “Washington PostThe recording could undermine Trump’s claims that he declassified the documents before leaving office, or that he was unaware of the possession of prohibited documents after leaving the White House.
Trump, who faces dozens of charges of mishandling classified government documents, defended himself in an interview on “Fox News”, saying that his “extreme preoccupation” prevented him from sorting out these documents, which were mixed with his personal belongings.
He added, “In my case, I took it out pretty much in a hurry, but people packed it up and then we left. And I had clothes there and all sorts of personal belongings (…) a lot of things.” Trump claimed, “I have every right to hold these funds.”
The US Department of Justice accuses Trump, who is seeking to run for the White House next year, of violating the Espionage Act and other laws when he carried the documents with him upon leaving office and did not hand them over to the National Archives.
And earlier this month, Trump appeared before a judge in Miami to read 37 criminal charges against him after the FBI found boxes containing classified documents at his residence in Florida last August. At the time, Trump pleaded not guilty.
The 76-year-old billionaire became the first former US president to be prosecuted by the federal judiciary, accusing him of illegally keeping secret documents that he took with him from the White House at the end of his term.
Judge Eileen Cannon has set the date for the first preliminary hearing in the case on July 14.
1687850050
#CNN #broadcasts #audio #recording #Trump #classified #documents #related #Iran