Trump caught on tape admitting he didn’t declassify ‘secret’ info he took from White House

Donald Trump was caught on tape admitting he didn’t classify secret military intelligence he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency ended.

In the recording, obtained by CNN, the former president acknowledged in a 2021 he had retained ‘secret’ military information on Iran. 

‘As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,’ Trump says, according to the transcript.

The recording shows that Trump understood that the some of the records he took to his Florida home remained classified. He had previously argued that the president can declassify anything he wants. 

Trump faces seven federal charges – including conspiracy, a violation of the Espionage Act, and classified documents retention – related to the documents he took with him after the left the White House.

The audio recording was from Trump’s 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort, with two people working on the autobiography of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as aides employed by the former president, including communications aide Margo Martin.

The transcript of the recording suggests that Trump is showing the document to those in the room – although it’s unclear if it’s the Iran document.

‘Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,’ Trump says at one point, according to the transcript. ‘This was done by the military and given to me.’

Trump was at his Bedminister, New Jersey, golf club on Thursday night when his lawyers informed him he was facing the federal indictment. He posted the news himself to his Truth Social account.

In the aftermath, Trump turned DJ and played his favorite tunes from Pavarotti to James Brown just 90 minutes after he discovered he was facing the historic federal indictment that could see him jailed for 100 years. 

After making a roaring statement on Truth Social, where he declared ‘I AM AN INNOCENT MAN’, Trump appeared to calm his nerves by having dinner at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, before playing disk jockey all night.

Wearing a Make America Great Again cap and pretending to be a DJ, Trump blasted Elvis, amongst his other favorite songs, a source told the New York Times. 

It is not the first time the 76-year-old has taken to throwing a bash in the face of criminal charges. After being indicted for the first time in April when he was accused of paying porn star Stormy Daniels hush-money, Trump threw a bash at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Donald Trump turned DJ and played his favorite tunes from Pavarotti to James Brown just 90 minutes after he discovered he was facing a historic federal indictment that could see him jailed for 100 years 

Trump had been at Bedminster when the news of his fresh charges broke. He denies the allegations and states he is innocent 

Shortly after being charged with the crime earlier this year, he flew to his West Palm Beach home, before partying with friends and family, taking on music responsibilities, blaring his campaign staple ‘Macho Man’ by the Village People.

Trump previously claimed he ‘always had a high aptitude for music’ and often DJ’s for his guests at the Florida resort. ‘People love it when I do it’, he told Full Send Podcast.

Trump’s most recent charge – which he has called a persecution – marks the first time in U.S. history that a former president has faced federal charges.

ABC News reported that the 76-year-old faces four separate counts, all of which carry a potential prison time of up to 20 years.

These include: conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document or record; and concealing a document in a federal investigation.

One count carries a 10 year sentence: willful retention of national defense information.

And the final two counts have a maximum of five years each: scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations. Trump’s indictment remains under seal, but his decision to publicize it means feds could unseal it as early as Friday, ahead of next Tuesday’s court appearance in Miami. 

The latest charges mark a fresh setback for the 2024 presidential hopeful, who plans to take control of the White House once again.

Wearing a Make America Great Again cap and pretending to be a DJ, Trump blasted Elvis, amongst his other favourite songs

 Workers move boxes out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds, before the departure of President Donald Trump on January 14, 2021

The news was met with outrage among the Republican party yesterday, with even his 2024 rival Ron DeSantis declaring that the ‘weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society’. 

DeSantis stopped short of saying whether he’d pardon his rival if Trump was convicted, despite calls for the Florida governor to commit to doing so.

Following his charge, Trump released a video, which The New York Times has claimed was pre-recorded, saying it was a political persecution, insisting he was innocent. 

He published a lengthy statement on his social media account Truth Social, which he set up in 2022 after being banned from Twitter.

‘The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is ‘secured’ by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time,’ Trump wrote.

‘I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM. I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election. I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!’

A FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August found a trove of classified documents (pictured)

Later on Thursday night, he said in a video: ‘Very sadly we’re a nation in decline and yet they go after a very popular president,’ Trump said.

‘I’m an innocent man, I did nothing wrong,’ he continued, vowing to ‘fight this out.’

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Trump also said he would ‘of course’ plead not guilty.

Prosecutors have said the former president took roughly 300 classified documents to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House, including around 100 which were seized by the FBI in August during a search of the home that underscored the gravity of the Justice Department’s investigation.

Trump insisted he was entitled to keep the classified documents when he left the White House and has claimed without evidence that he had declassified them.

Trump and his team have long seen the special counsel investigation as far more perilous than the New York matter – both politically and legally.

It remains unclear what the immediate and long-term political consequences will be for the former leader.

His first indictment spurred millions of dollars in contributions from angry supporters and did not damage Trump in the polls as the 2024 presidential race ramps up.

The former president’s legal troubles extend beyond the New York indictment and classified documents case. The special counsel has a separate probe underway focused on efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election while the district attorney in Georgia’s Fulton County is investigating Trump over alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election in that state.

Trump will appear in court in Miami at 3pm on Tuesday, where the most recent charges will be put to him. Security has already been increased around the courthouse ahead of his appearance before the judge. 

He has already been indicted in New York and faces additional investigations in Washington and Atlanta that could lead to criminal charges.