Prosecutors have a tape of Trump discussing the handling of classified docs after leaving office

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WASHINGTON (AP) Justice Department prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of former President Donald Trump after he left office in which he discussed handling a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran. , according to media reports.

CNN, which first reported on the tape, said Trump suggested in the recording that he wanted to share information from the document with others but knew there were limits about his ability to declassify records after he left the office

The comments on the recording, made in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, appear to undercut the former president’s repeated claims that he has declassified documents he brought from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, after leaving office. The recording could also be a valuable aid for prosecutors seeking to prove that Trump knew his access to classified documents was limited.

The recording was given to special counsel Jack Smith, whose team of prosecutors has spent months investigating the potential mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and whether Trump or anyone else to stop the investigation. The investigation shows signs of being in its final stages, with prosecutors interviewing a wide cross-section of witnesses before the grand jury.

No one was criminally charged.

The criminal investigation began last year after the National Archives and Records Administration alerted the FBI to the presence of classified documents in 15 boxes of records that were eventually returned from Mar-a-Lago by Trump and his associates. representative Investigators initially issued a subpoena for the remaining classified records, but after they received about three dozen during a visit to Mar-a-Lago in June 2022, returned with a search warrant two months later and obtained again about 100 more documents marked as classified.

Smith, the special counsel, is also investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election that are the subject of a similar, ongoing inquiry by prosecutors in Atlanta. New York prosecutors charged Trump earlier this year with falsifying business records.

According to a CNN report, the recording was made at a gathering in Bedminster with Trump aides and two people working on the autobiography of Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

It said Meadows’ autobiography included a description of what appeared to be the same meeting. An attorney for Meadows declined to comment Wednesday when reached by The Associated Press.

CNN said that witnesses including Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked about the episode. A spokesman for Milley declined to comment on reports that he had been interviewed.

A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.

A Trump spokesman said in a statement that the investigation was frivolous and amounted to continued meddling in the presidential election.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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