‘I did nothing wrong’: Trump sticks to his story that he showed newspaper and magazine articles after CNN released scathing audio showing off ‘highly confidential’ and ‘secret information’ about Iran
- Former President Donald Trump said in New Hampshire on Tuesday he had ‘done nothing wrong’
- He responded to the CNN release of an audio recording in which he was heard talking about ‘highly confidential’ and ‘secret’ Iranian documents
- Trump continued to say the comments were about “newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of various plans, copies of stories”
Former President Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday that he had “done nothing wrong” after CNN released an audio clip on Monday night in which he heard people show a document he said was “highly confidential” and contained “secret information” about Iran.
Earlier this month, Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges for mishandling classified documents, with the indictment saying that Trump possessed a secret battle plan against Iran, which he reportedly presented to a writer and publisher of a book on July 21, 2021 at 9 p.m. showed. his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Last week, during an interview with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier, Trump said “it wasn’t a document” and said he kept copies of newspaper articles and magazines on his desk, a line he repeated to Fox on Tuesday during a campaign swing to New Hampshire.
“I said it very clearly – I had a whole desk full of papers, mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of different plans, copies of stories, dealing with a lot of subjects, and what was being said was absolutely fine. And very perfect,” Trump said. ‘We haven’t done anything wrong. This is a complete hoax.’
Monday night, CNN released an audio recording of that conversation in which Trump says of the Pentaon and military officials, “They presented me with this – this is off the record – but they presented me with this.”
Former President Donald Trump spoke to New Hampshire’s Fox News on Tuesday, responding to an audio clip leaked to CNN Monday evening in which he speaks of “highly confidential” and “secret” documents
The former president tried to push back a New Yorker story said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and other military officials feared Trump would go to war with Iran to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
The story was published a week before the conversation, the audio recording of which allegedly took place.
“This totally wins my case, you know? Except it’s highly confidential. Secret. This is classified information,” Trump is heard saying in the leaked clip.
A woman on the recording then commented, “Hillary would print that all the time,” a reference to classified documents.
“She was going to send it to Anthony Weiner, the pervert,” Trump replied.
The indictment listed the meeting participants as Trump, two of his aides, a writer and a publisher who worked on former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ memoirs.
The rustle of papers can be heard several times during the two-minute clip.
A photo of boxes of classified documents released as part of the 37 count federal indictment against former President Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump holds up a ‘fake news’ license plate during a campaign swing to Manchester, New Hampshire, on Tuesday
“By the way, isn’t that incredible?” Trump also said. ‘These are the papers. This was done by the army and given to me.’
“Look, as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know,” he added, noting that it was “interesting” and “cool.”
On Tuesday, Fox asked the 2024 presidential candidate if he was concerned about his own voice on the tape.
“My voice was fine,” Trump replied. “What did I say wrong on those recordings?”
“I didn’t even see the recording,” the ex-president added. “All I know is that I didn’t do anything wrong. We had a lot of papers, a lot of papers piled up. You can even hear the rustling of the paper.’
“And no one said I was doing anything wrong except the fake news, which of course is Fox,” Trump added.