Feds have audio of Trump saying that he held on to classified Pentagon document trends now
Prosecutors for the Department of Justice have gotten an audio recording of former President Donald Trump discussing keeping a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran, as part of a continuing investigation into Trumps handling of classified documents.
Trump allegedly suggested on the recording that he wanted to share information from the document with others but knew there were limits to what he could declassify after he left office, according to CNN.
The comments on the recording, made in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, would seem to undercut the former president's repeated claims that he declassified the documents he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, after leaving office.
Aide Margo Martin was regularly taping Trump at the time so that she could accurately depict his remarks in former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' memoirs.
The recording could also be a key aid for prosecutors looking to prove Trump knew his ability to possess classified documents was limited.
Prosecutors for the Department of Justice have gotten an audio recording of former President Donald Trump discussing keeping a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran, as part of a continuing investigation into Trumps handling of classified documents
It was provided to special counsel Jack Smith, whose team of prosecutors have spent months investigating the potential mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and whether Trump or anyone else sought to criminally obstruct the probe.
The investigation shows signs of being in its final stages, with prosecutors having interviewed a broad cross-section of witnesses before the grand jury.
Trump has not yet been charged in connection to the classified document handling and raid on his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, although he faces an ongoing case over hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The criminal investigation began last year after the National Archives and Records Administration alerted the FBI to the presence of classified documents in 15 boxes of records sent back, belatedly, from Mar-a-Lago by Trump and his representatives.
Investigators initially issued a subpoena for remaining classified records, but after they received only about three dozen during a June 2022 visit to Mar-a-Lago, returned with a search warrant two months later and recovered about 100 more documents marked as classified.
Smith, the special counsel, is also investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election - the subject of a similar, ongoing inquiry by prosecutors in Atlanta.
New York prosecutors charged
