In a two-minute audio recording released Monday, June 26 by CNN and dated, according to reporters, as July 2021, Donald Trump claims to have “highly confidential” documents. “Isn’t it amazing? “, asks the former president of the United States to his interlocutors while leafing through “a big pile of papers”, in his words – the sound of the documents on the table is audible in the extract, also published by the New York Times. Remarks in contradiction with his version of the facts, exposed in the American media for several weeks, according to which the documents which he kept in his property of Mar-a-Lago, in Florida, for which he is prosecuted by justice, n were not confidential.

The audio document was excerpted from an interview the former president gave to an editor and writer working on the memoir of Mark Meadows, Trump’s last chief of staff. Two of his collaborators are also present, according to the American media. This is “secret information” about attack plans in Iran, the former Republican lawmaker adds in the recording. “It was done by the army and given to me,” he told his interlocutors. “See, as president I could have declassified it, but now I can’t,” he said. “Now we have a problem,” one person replies with a laugh.

The 77-year-old presidential candidate is, among other things, accused of endangering the security of the United States by keeping confidential documents, including military plans and information on nuclear weapons, in toilets or storerooms of his luxury club in Florida. The American justice also accuses him of having refused to return these documents despite court injunctions, which earned him to be charged with “illegal retention of information relating to national security”, but also for “obstructing justice”. and “false testimony”.

Challenge of the 37 counts of indictment

Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 charges in a historic federal court appearance in Miami, Florida on June 13. In an interview with conservative Fox News on June 18, Mr. Trump said that when he quickly left the White House in January 2021, his personal belongings were mixed with government documents.

If he did not turn over the documents to the National Archives at the request of federal agents, it was “because I had boxes, I wanted to rummage through these boxes to get out all my personal belongings. I didn’t want to put them back on…yet,” he said. “I was very busy,” he added. He also explained to journalists that these were press articles, but nothing confidential, recalls CNN.

In a post on his Truth Social platform Monday night, Donald Trump accused Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is leading the two federal investigations against him, of “unlawfully disclosing” the soundtrack. “It’s actually an exemption, rather than what they [Mr. Smith, the DOJ and the FBI] would have you believe,” he added, denouncing “witch hunts” and “election interference.”

In the United States, a law obliges presidents to transmit all their e-mails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives. Another prohibits keeping state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places. When he left the White House in January 2021, Donald Trump nevertheless took away dozens of boxes full of files.

In January 2022, after several reminders, the former president agreed to return boxes containing nearly 200 classified documents, but kept some secretly. To retrieve them, FBI agents conducted a spectacular search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022 and seized another 30 boxes, containing 11,000 documents.

In addition to the illegal possession of classified documents, there are numerous legal proceedings against Donald Trump, at local and federal levels, concerning tax and electoral manipulation.