(Washington) Former US President Donald Trump, who has been accused of negligent handling of government secrets since leaving the White House, is discussing secret plans to attack Iran that he allegedly harbored at home, according to a taped conversation released Monday evening by CNN.
According to the US news channel, it was “a conversation in July 2021, shortly after he left office, during which former President Donald Trump admitted to having a classified Pentagon document related to an attack against Iran”.
“Here are the documents,” Mr. Trump says.
“It was made by the military and given to me,” he explains. “As the president I could have classified it. Now I can’t, you know, but it’s still a secret.
“Now we have a problem,” a consultant points out. “How interesting,” said Mr. Trump responds.
Mr. who was in power from 2017 to 2021. Trump was indicted by a federal court in Miami in mid-June after pleading not guilty. The indictment, citing a portion of the audio broadcast by CNN, accused Mr. 37 charges against Trump. He later denied having classified documents and spoke of “atrocious abuse of power”.
This sets the stage for a historic and highly damaging test of his campaign for the 2024 US presidential election.
He is accused of endangering the security of the United States by keeping classified documents, including information about military plans or nuclear weapons, in the bathroom or storage room of his luxury home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
He was accused of refusing to return these documents despite court orders, leading to charges of “unlawful possession of information related to national security”, but also “obstruction of justice” and “perjury”.
Donald Trump had already been indicted by a New York state judge in early April for multiple counts of fraud in connection with payments to silence an X movie actress he claims was his mistress before the 2016 presidential election.
He is yet to wrap up his legal troubles. A Georgia prosecutor must announce the outcome of an investigation into alleged pressure to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election by September.
A special prosecutor is also investigating his role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
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