Pak Sahafat – CNN reported that US federal prosecutors have an audio file of Donald Trump that shows that after leaving the White House, he still kept confidential documents with him, which could lead to the legal exclusion of the former US President from continuing his race to enter the White House in the 2024 US elections.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency’s report, quoted by CNN, US federal prosecutors have a 2021 audio file of former US President Donald Trump admitting that he kept a secret Pentagon documents about a possible attack on Iran after he left the White House.
In a report citing multiple anonymous sources, the television network said that the audio file shows that Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination in the 2024 US presidential election, is still keeping confidential material with him.
Two sources told CNN that Trump’s comments in the audio show that while he is willing to share the classified information, he is aware of his current restrictions on disclosing classified documents.
On the other hand, Trump denied this issue and one of his representatives, although he did not comment on this audio file or specific statements attributed to Trump, but called this investigation politically motivated.
Stephen Chong, Trump’s spokesman, said: These revelations are designed only to create political problems for Trump and his supporters and to inflame existing tensions.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether Trump broke the law by keeping classified U.S. government documents, some of which are classified as top secret, after he left office in January 2021.
In August 2022, the department revealed that it was investigating Trump over the theft of classified White House documents because they believed the former US president was illegally in possession of classified documents.
Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the department’s investigation into Trump, is also investigating efforts to manipulate the election results and keep Trump in power in the 2020 election, which led to the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
A source told CNN that the Iran document portion of the audio is about two minutes long, and another CNN source noted that the Iran discussion was a small part of a longer meeting held in July 2021 at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
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All of CNN’s sources describe the audio as an important piece of evidence in a possible case against Trump.
The US Department of Justice’s special counsel is now focusing on the meeting as part of a criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of US national security secrets.
Prosecutors have questioned witnesses about the audio and the document referenced in the file before a federal grand jury.
Even this issue was so important to the investigators of the US Department of Justice that it prompted them to interrogate General Mark Milley, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army during the Trump era.
The July 2021 meeting was held at the Trump Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, with two people working on a biography of former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, as well as aides hired by the former president, including communications specialist Margo Martin.
Participants in the meeting did not have security clearances that would have given them access to classified information, sources said, and Meadows did not attend, the sources said.
The revelation that the former president and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are discussing a classified document could lead to Trump being legally disqualified from running for the White House in 2024.
According to CNN, the investigation of the special investigator of the US Department of Justice about this audio file is still ongoing, but it has not yet led to any criminal charges against Trump.