CNN airs leaked audio of Trump talking about classified documents in 2021

CNN released an audio recording on Monday of former U.S. President Donald Trump speaking to a group of people in Bedminster, New Jersey in 2021. During the audio, Trump is clearly referring to a document he is holding, calling it “highly confidential.”

While it is unclear from the audio if Trump showed the contents of the document to those in the meeting, he says the document is “still a secret.”

In the audio, Trump seems to be aware of the problematic nature of having classified documents, as do the others in the meeting.

“See as president, I could have declassified it,” Trump says. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

“Now we have a problem,” Trump’s staff member says.

“Isn’t that interesting?” Trump responds.

The recording is a key piece of evidence in the indictment of Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith for alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Trump can also be heard joking with his staff about former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified emails.

“Hillary would print that [classified material] out all the time, you know. Her classified emails,” says one of his staff members

Trump responds, “No, she’d send it to Anthony Weiner. The pervert.”

Trump pled not guilty to 37 counts of mishandling classified material at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Last week, Trump told Fox News correspondent Brett Baier that he did not have any classified documents.

“Bret, there was no document,” Trump insisted in the interview when questioned about the indictment.

Trump continued by saying the “massive amount of papers” were simply news stories and articles.

“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. That was not a document. I didn’t have any document per se. There was nothing to declassify, these were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”

When Baier referred to the CNN audio recording, Trump responded by accusing the prosecutors of being “dishonest people.”

“These people are very dishonest people, they are thugs,” Trump told Baier.

After the interview aired, legal scholar Jonathan Turley, who has a history of pro-Trump statements, posted a note to social media saying, “Statements of this kind are generally admissible at trial.”

Trump is involved in several other ongoing investigations.

His trial on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the New York criminal court is set to begin in March 2024.

Trump is also being investigated by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis regarding attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Willis has not yet announced whether she intends to press any charges against Trump.

Smith is also investigating Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

These investigations do not seem to have affected Trump's support, as a recent poll showed an increase in support for the former president among Republican voters after the indictment for mishandling classified documents was announced.

The poll also showed Trump’s position has improved against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.