Former President Donald Trump said during an interview on Monday that he did not show classified documents to individuals without security clearances despite his claim on an alleged audio tape that he did.
Trump, who was charged earlier this month with 37 felonies in the federal investigation into his handling of classified national defense information, is accused of showing classified material to a writer who was interviewing the former president.
The indictment states:
In July 2021, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (“The Bedminster Club”), during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance, [Trump] showed and described a “plan of attack” that [Trump] said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official. [Trump] told the individuals that the plan was “highly confidential” and “secret.” [Trump] also said, “as president I could have declassified it,” and, “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
Fox News anchor Bret Baier brought up that portion of the indictment — which allegedly detailed a plan of attack against Iran — during his interview with Trump and asked if the former president remembered doing that.
“It wasn’t a document,” Trump said. “I had lots of paper. I had copies of newspaper articles. I had copies of magazines.”
Baier responded, “This is specifically a quote, you’re quoted on the recording saying the document was ‘secret,’ adding that you could have declassified it while you were president, but, quote, ‘Now I can’t, you know, this is still secret, highly confidential.’ And the indictment cites the recording and the testimony from people in the room saying you showed it to people there that day.”
Trump rejected those statements, claiming that it was “just the opposite.”
“You say on tape you can’t declassify,” Baier responded. “So why have it?”
“When I said that, I couldn’t declassify it now because I wasn’t president, I never made any bones about that,” Trump answered. “When I’m not president, I can’t declassify.”
When Baier again mentioned that Trump was recorded on tape saying those things, Trump responded, “No, no. Bret, there was no document.”
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