In an audio recording recently obtained by NBC News, Donald Trump appears to be discussing a sensitive military document and admits that he did not declassify it when he was president, according to a partial transcript included in his indictment by federal prosecutors this month.
Trump claimed in media interviews after his indictment that he was not in possession of the document when he spoke. The indictment of Trump and his aide Walt Nauta included a partial transcript that redacted some specific names.
In the 2021 recording, which was first reported by CNN and later obtained by NBC News, Trump is heard speaking with an author, an editor and two members of Trump’s staff at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. .
In the recording, Trump discusses a document he describes as an “attack plan” given to him by General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to attack Iran. Trump then says the document contains “secret information.”
“I have a big stack of papers,” Trump says in the recording while discussing the plan amid the noise of papers shuffling around. “They presented me with this. It’s unofficial. But they presented me with this. It was him. It was the Ministry of Defense and him.”
“Isn’t it amazing?” Trump said, adding that the information available was “highly confidential.”
The special advocate’s office declined to comment when asked about the recording.
In an interview last week, Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier, “I didn’t have a document per se. There was nothing to downgrade. These were newspaper articles, magazines and articles.
A campaign spokesperson insisted the tape proved Trump had done nothing wrong.
“The audio tape provides context proving, once again, that President Trump did nothing wrong at all,” the spokesperson said.
He added that the president “speaks rhetorically” and also “humorously” about former Rep. Anthony Weiner and Hillary Clinton.
“Once again, the media and Trump’s haters were all too willing to take the bait, falling for yet another hoax, hook, line, and sinker from the Democrat-DOJ.”
In the recording, Trump says the document is “secret information” and the unidentified woman responds, “Hillary would print it all the time, you know?” This appeared to be a reference to accusations that Clinton classified information on a private email server while he was secretary of state.
Trump then responds on the recording, “She would send it to Anthony Weiner,” a reference that some of his emails were on a laptop belonging to the former congressman, who had been married to the one of his main collaborators.
Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, made unsubstantiated claims Monday night that the tape had been “leaked” by investigators. CNN did not say how it obtained the audio.
In early June, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida for keeping classified documents he had no right to have and misleading investigators to keep sensitive documents he knew he had. that they were still classified.
Read the full indictment.
He is charged with 37 counts, including 31 counts of willfully withholding national defense information, as well as other counts including conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The former president pleaded not guilty on June 13.
Trump was also charged in New York state court with paying silent money to porn star Stormy Daniels. He also pleaded not guilty in that case.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com