According to audio obtained by CNN, former President Donald Trump, in a 2021 meeting, acknowledged that he had retained "secret" military information that he had not declassified. Ohhhh. Trump has claimed that he can declassify anything at will, so what happened?
"As president, I could have declassified, but now I can't," Trump said in the audio.
CNN reports:
CNN obtained the transcript of a portion of the meeting where Trump is discussing a classified Pentagon document about attacking Iran. In the audio recording, which CNN previously reported was obtained by prosecutors, Trump says that he did not declassify the document he's referencing, according to the transcript.
It appears that Trump has a penchant for lying. Who knew?!
Publicly, Trump has claimed that all the documents he brought with him to his Florida residence are declassified, while he's railed against the special counsel's investigation as a political witch hunt attempting to interfere with his 2024 presidential campaign.
CNN first reported last week that prosecutors had obtained the audio recording of Trump's 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort, with two people working on the autobiography of Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as aides employed by the former president, including communications specialist Margo Martin.
The transcript of the audio recording suggests that Trump is showing the document he's discussing to those in the room. Several sources have told CNN the recording captures the sound of paper rustling, as if Trump was waving the document around, though is not clear if it was the actual Iran document.
"Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this," Trump says at one point, according to the transcript. "This was done by the military and given to me."
He really is an idiot.
Back in August, as we reported, several advisers said that Trump told them at the time about the documents: "It's not theirs, it's mine."
Trump has been indicted on seven charges, proving that the classified documents are not his. They belong to our country, and he shared our country's secrets with someone else. That's a crime. Didn't you always know that Trump's big mouth would get him in trouble?
