Donald Trump claims was lying about having classified papers after audio clip surfaces

Former US president Donald Trump claimed that he was just “joking” when an audio clip of him talking about having classified documents related to a potential military strike against Iran came to the fore.

After a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Trump called the tape as "another hoax," saying that he actually didn’t have any classified military papers with him at all.

“I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth, it was bravado,” Trump told reportersfor Semafor and ABC News on Tuesday.

“I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.”

The 77-year-old further said that he was lying during the taped conversation he had with his former chief of staff at his Bedminster, NJ, golf club in July 2021.

Not classified papers

He claimed that the papers were not classified and consisted of whatever "random papers happened to be on his desk during the meeting".

“I just held up a whole pile of — my desk is loaded up with papers. I have papers from 25 different things,” he said

The clarification came a day after CNN published the audio recording, which has been served as key evidence in the federal indictment Trump is facing for mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.

Donald Trump: Leaked audio 'actually an exoneration'

Audi clip

The audio records Trump speaking to several people and apparently showing them documents relating to a possible attack on Iran that he says were drawn up by United States Army General Mark Milley and which he himself says are still classified.

During the conversation, Trump suggested that the plans originated from General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know? Except it is like highly confidential, secret information,” Trump can be heard saying in the tape as he tells two members of his staff and a writer and publisher working on a memoir for former aide Mark Meadows about a purported plan to an attack against Iran.

“See, as president I could have declassified it,”Trump says in the recording. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

During the indictment, Smith noted that “none” of the parties involved in the conversation “possessed a security clearance.”

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