In a recording published by CNN on Monday evening, June 26, former US President Donald Trump – indicted for his alleged negligent handling of state secrets after leaving the White House – evokes classified plans to attack Iran that he would have kept at home.

According to the US news channel, it is "a conversation in July 2021, shortly after he left office, during which former President Donald Trump admits to having kept a confidential Pentagon document relating to a potential attack on Iran".

"Here are the papers," Trump says in the recording, referring to advisers about the Pentagon's attack plans.

"It was done by the army and was given to me," he said. "As president, I could have declassified him. Now I can't, you know, but it's still a secret."

"Now we have a problem," said one adviser. "How interesting," replies Donald Trump.

Read alsoClassified documents: why was Donald Trump indicted and not Mike Pence or Joe Biden?

After pleading not guilty, Donald Trump, in power from 2017 to 2021, was indicted in mid-June by a federal court in Miami, Florida. The indictment, which mentions part of the recording broadcast by CNN, brought 37 charges against Donald Trump. The former president then spoke of "heinous abuse of power", denying having kept classified documents.

This paves the way for a historic and potentially very damaging trial for his 2024 US presidential campaign.

Serial court cases

Donald Trump is accused of jeopardizing the security of the United States by keeping confidential documents, including military plans or information on nuclear weapons, in a restroom or storage room of his luxury residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

He is also accused of refusing to return these documents despite court orders, which led to him being charged with "unlawful withholding of information relating to national security", but also "obstruction of justice" and "false testimony".

Donald Trump had already been indicted in early April by the justice of the State of New York for several accounting frauds in connection with a payment made before the presidential election of 2016 to silence an actress of films X who says to have been his mistress.

He is not done with legal problems. A Georgian prosecutor is expected to announce by September the outcome of her investigation into the pressure he allegedly exerted to try to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

A special prosecutor is simultaneously investigating his role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

With AFP

The summary of the weekFrance 24 invites you to look back on the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news with you everywhere! Download the France 24 app