CNN has obtained leaked audio of a conversation where President Trump purportedly displayed a classified document, which some left-wing legal analysts and leaders have labeled a “smoking gun.” The indictment against Trump asserts that he casually exhibited a classified document outlining a Pentagon strategy for an Iran attack. While a partial transcript of the audio was included in the indictment, the full recording was only made available on Monday.
In the leaked audio snippet obtained by CNN, Trump’s voice can be heard as he shuffles through papers, expressing disdain for General Mark Milley. Trump can be heard saying, “This was him, can you believe this?” He mentions having a substantial pile of papers and proceeds to rustle through them. At one point, he mentions the secrecy of certain documents and asserts his authority as president to declassify them.
As the clip only contains audio, the specific details of the conversation and whether any papers were physically displayed or “waved around” remain unclear.
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During a recent interview with Fox News, Trump was questioned about the yet-to-be-released audio recording. In response, he strongly refuted the accusations of “waving around” a classified document regarding the plan. Trump clarified that he was merely quoting an article rather than physically displaying any classified material.
“There was no document,” Trump said. “That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things. 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.”
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