Trump caught on tape admitting he kept classified Pentagon document after leaving White House: Report

A 2021 audio recording of Donald Trump acknowledging that he kept a confidential Pentagon document after exiting from the office is in possession of federal prosecutors, CNN quoted citing officials in knowledge of the matter.

The US-based news outlet said that it did not hear the audio recording, but cited the official to suggest that Trump deliberately kept confidential information beyond his time as the president. The classified documents detail a "potential attack on Iran."

The recording is believed to be about two minutes long, with the sources telling CNN that it was a small part of a much longer meeting that took place in July 2021 at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

It is being reported that several attendees at the July meeting did not have the necessary security clearance to be privy to discussions about the classified material.

The audio recording includes comments by Trump discussing his desire to publicly share information about the potential Iran attack, but acknowledging that he could not declassify the information at that point since he was no longer president, according to CNN's sources.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who has been leading the Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump, has been focused on the meeting as part of the criminal investigation into the 45th president’s handling of national security secrets.

Official sources believe that this recording would serve as an “important” piece of evidence in a possible case against Trump, who has repeatedly asserted he could retain presidential records and “automatically” declassify documents.

Reacting to the report, a Trump spokesperson said in a statement: “Leaks from radical partisans behind this political persecution are designed to inflame tensions and continue the media’s harassment of President Trump and his supporters. It’s just more proof that when it comes to President Trump, there are absolutely no depths to which they will not sink as they pursue their witch hunts.”

The Department of Justice began investigating Trump's mishandling of documents publicly in August 2022, when FBI agents raided the former US president’s Mar-A-Lago home in Florida to uncover a trove of documents, many of which were classified.

Federal investigators have already asked high-level witnesses about the Iran document in front of a federal grand jury.

Recently, a report by the Wall Street Journal noted that Smith, who is nearing the end of his testimony and evidence-gathering phase into Trump's handling of classified documents, is nearing a decision on whether or not to bring criminal charges against the former president.