New tape indicates Trump revealed 'highly confidential, secret' information
A tape recording has emerged indicating former US president Donald Trump showed "highly confidential, secret" documents to a writer, a publisher and two of his staff.
The audio file, which is two minutes long and was published by the US media on Monday, was recorded during a Trump interview with an author writing his memoirs at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club in July 2021.
The US Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith overseeing the months-long investigations into Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office used the audio tape as evidence in the cases lodged against the former president.
The tape recording includes a part in which Trump seems to be showing the author a secret Pentagon document in which plans were made to attack Iran.
In the recording, Trump says, "These are the papers."
Then, he referred to the documents he was showing them as "highly confidential" papers, pointing out that, "This is secret information."
"This was done by the military and given to me," Trump continued, before pointing out that the document was still classified. "You see, as president, I could have declassified it. Now I can't, you know."
Then, at that moment one of those present at the interview suggests to the former president that he should discontinue revealing classified information by saying, "Now we have a problem!"
"Isn't that interesting? It's so cool," Trump carried on saying after that suggestion. However, the recordings stopped with the former president telling someone to bring the group some beverages.
In court, Trump has pleaded not guilty on 37 counts of willfully mishandling US government secrets and conspiring to prevent their return.
The US Department of Justice accuses the former president of revealing government secrets to people who did not have US security clearance.
Trump's court trial is tentatively scheduled to begin on August 14, but his legal team is likely to get the preliminary date pushed back by months to gain continued freedom for the former president to likely take part in the 2024 US presidential election.
US legal experts say if Trump is convicted in the classified documents case, he could try to pardon himself if he is re-elected as president.
In the meantime, Trump has railed against the US justice system, claiming the US judiciary is “weaponized and corrupt”.
He has called on his supporters to support him in his fight against what he calls an unfair legal attack against him.
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