Trump is facing 37 federal felony charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. He has claimed he used his powers as president to declassify the documents before leaving office.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign insisted the audio exonerates the former president. “The audio tape provides context proving, once again, that President Trump did nothing wrong at all,” the official insisted, noting Trump was joking in the audio. “The president is speaking rhetorically and also quite humorously.”
When a partial transcript of the conversation was released, Trump told US media he didn’t have any documents in his hand at the time but the audio appears to show that he did.
“Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump can be heard saying in the audio clip. “I have a big pile of papers. They presented me this. This is off the record. But they presented me this. This was him [Gen. Mark Milley]. This was the Defense Department and him.”
Trump reportedly knew he was being recorded at the time.