THE VILLAGES, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 03: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event at the Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center in The Villages on October 03, 2019 in The Villages, Florida. President Trump spoke about Medicare, and signed an executive order calling for further privatizing of it. Donald Trump. (Image: Getty)
Donald Trump rejected claims that an audio recording that seemingly caught the former president confessing that he illegally took classified from the White House is evidence of his guilt.
Trump was indicted earlier in the month by Special Counsel Jack Smith for 37 counts of willful retention of national defense information. He was arrested and arraigned at the Miami federal courthouse, where he pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations against him, doing so just last a week in an interview with Fox News. The former president told host Bret Baier that the boxes taken from the White House contained nothing more than news clippings.
However, the audio recording from July 2021 contradicts Trump’s previous statements. The tape clearly captured him discussing the contents of a document that he had with him at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He told his colleagues that he held information concerning “secret” plans regarding Iran, stating that he “could have declassified” the documents as president, but “now [he] can’t.”
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Smith cited larger segments of the recording in Trump’s indictment, although it was just heard publicly for the first time on Monday.
Trump brushed off claims that the video may have incriminated him.
“I don’t know of any recordings that we should be concerned with because I don’t do things wrong. I do things right. I’m a legitimate person,” declared Trump.
“My voice was fine. What did I say wrong on those recordings? I didn’t even see the recording,” Trump continued. “All I know is I did nothing wrong. We had a lot of papers, a lot of papers stacked up… nobody said that I did anything wrong other than the fake news, which of course is Fox, too.”
These comments were made while speaking to Fox News Digital.
Trump’s continuous ambiguity about the case has invited criticism; many legal and political experts have accused the former president of implicating himself on multiple occasions, some citing the Fox News interview with Baier last week.
Not only is the audio recording indicative that Trump was in possession of national security information but also appears to confirm that he shared the contents of the documents with other people, another federal crime.
The former president’s trial is scheduled to begin as soon as August 14, although it will likely be delayed by pretrial motions.
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