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Ex-President Trump at the end of May: New details revealed in the document affair
Photo: Alex Brandon / dpa
According to media reports, there are new details in the affair over former US President Donald Trump's handling of secret government documents. CNN and other media reported on Wednesday evening, citing informed circles, that investigators had come across an audio recording from the summer of 2021 in which Trump admitted possession of a classified Pentagon document.
In doing so, he made it clear that he was aware that he had taken confidential material with him after leaving the White House. This could undermine Trump's argument that he had previously declassified any material found with him after leaving office – in other words, he had removed the secrecy of the documents.
Document on possible attack on Iran
According to the CNN report, Trump's remarks were related to a document about a possible attack on Iran. The New York Times wrote that the audio recording was from a meeting Trump held in July 2021 with several people who helped his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, write his memoirs. The conversation took place in a Trump estate in the state of New Jersey.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had searched Trump's private estate Mar-a-Lago in Florida last August and seized various classified information, some with the highest level of secrecy. The fact that the Republican had kept the documents in his private home long after his departure from office could have made him liable to prosecution. The National Archives tried for months to get papers from Trump from his time in office. Although Trump's lawyers finally handed over documents – but by no means all, as it turned out during the FBI search in Mar-a-Lago.
Trump sees politically motivated actions
The U.S. Department of Justice has appointed a special counsel to investigate the allegations against Trump. The Republican criticizes the investigations against him as politically motivated and has long railed that it is merely an attempt by his opponents to prevent him from returning to the White House. Trump officially announced last November that he wanted to run again as a candidate in the presidential election in November 2024.
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