Former President Donald Trump claims an explosive audiotape recorded at his New Jersey golf resort is an “exoneration” — even though it captures him brazenly talking about showing off a “highly classified” document.
Lashing out at special counsel Jack Smith as a “deranged Trump hater,” the former president accused federal prosecutors of leaking the damning 2021 tape to torpedo his presidential bid.
“(They) ‘spun’ a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,” Trump wrote late Monday on his social media site. He did not explain how the tape could be seen as exculpatory.
The tape, obtained by CNN, shows Trump bragging about having a secret Pentagon plan for attacking Iran.
He leaves little doubt that he is keen to show off a top secret document that he tells book researchers is damaging to Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, with whom he was feuding.
“These are the papers,” Trump says in the audio clip, as rustling can be heard. “It’s so cool.”
“This totally wins my case (against Milley), you know?” Trump says, apparently showing them the document. “Except it is highly confidential.”
Despite Trump’s bluster, prosecutors say the tape proves that Trump intentionally kept documents that he knew were classified after taking boxes of materials to his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The former president’s own words also eviscerate his claim that he had already declassified all the Mar-a-Lago documents simply by taking them.
Trump was charged this month with 37 felonies in a federal indictment accusing him of stashing classified documents at his Florida resort, making him the first former president to face criminal charges. Trump has pleaded not guilty and could face trial in December.
He remains the overwhelming front runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by a wide margin along with a string of lesser candidates.
Some polls have showed Trump’s support softening a bit after his indictment and a series of withering attacks by long shot rival Chris Christie.
Legal analysts say the tape amounts to a hammer blow to Trump’s defense because juries often find tapes of defendants to be particularly compelling evidence.
The casual tone used by Trump while apparently waving around national secrets is especially damning.
“This was done by the military and given to me,” Trump says, adding that the document remained classified.
“See, as president I could have declassified it,” Trump says. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
“You probably almost didn’t believe me, but now you believe me.” he says. “It’s incredible, right?”
The existence of the tape was revealed by Smith’s prosecutors earlier this month along with a transcript.
But the audio puts the lie to Trump’s claim in a recent Fox News interview that “there was no document.”
“It may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document,” Trump told Fox anchor Bret Baier. “I didn’t have a document, per se.”
“That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things,” Trump said last week. “And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”
