Trump Says He Didn’t Have Any Documents in Audio Recording: ‘It Was Bravado’

Former President Donald J. Trump speaks during the Faith and Freedom Road to Majority conference at Hilton in Washington on June 24, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Former President Donald Trump said he was holding random sheets of papers, not revealing classified documents during an audio recording in which he was heard mentioning classified material.

“I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth, it was bravado,” Trump told ABC News and Semafor in an interview on June 27. “I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.”

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

On Monday, CNN first aired the audio recording in which it sounded like the former president was describing military plans for an attack on Iran. A partial transcript of the recording appears to match up with a portion of special counsel Jack Smith’s 37-count federal indictment against Trump, which describes a meeting between Trump, a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff in July 2021. During the meeting, they talked about the attack plan while interviewing Trump for a memoir about his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

In the recording, Trump said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley formulated an attack plan on Iran, despite claims reported by media that Milley feared the former president would start a war with Iran.

“I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know,” Trump says in the audio recording. “Except it is, like, highly confidential, secret, this is secret information. Look. Look at this, you attack, and....”

Trump later says, “These are the papers … this was done by the military and given to me. I think we can probably, right?”

An unnamed speaker responds, “I don’t know, we’ll have to see, we’ll have to try to figure out a....”

“Declassify it,” Trump interrupts, before adding, “See, as president I could have declassified it.”

“Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” Trump says.

During the Tuesday interview, Trump was asked if he had any regrets about the ways he had handled classified documents.

“No, I have no regrets,” he said. “I didn’t have a classified document. There was no classified document on my desk.”

The former president faces a total of 37 felony counts over his handling of documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, including violating the federal Espionage Act and other federal statutes for allegedly making false statements, concealing documents, and conspiring to obstruct justice.

FBI agents raided Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, seizing over 11,000 documents and photographs without classified markings and around 100 documents marked classified or top secret. However, Trump has said he declassified the materials when he left office.

Trump Says He’s Not Concerned About Audio Recordings

Trump said the release of the audio recording amounted to “election interference, more than anything else,” but again said there was no indication he had acted inappropriately with classified documents.

Fox News asked Trump whether he was concerned about his voice appearing on the recording.

“My voice was fine. What did I say wrong on those recordings? I didn’t even see the recording. All I know is I did nothing wrong,” Trump replied. “We had a lot of papers, a lot of papers stacked up. In fact, you hear the rustle of the paper. And nobody said that I did anything wrong other than the fake news, which of course is Fox, too.”

Fox News then asked Trump if he was aware of any additional audio recordings pertaining to his handling of classified documents.

“I don’t know of any recordings that we should be concerned with because I don’t do things wrong,” Trump said. “I do things right. I’m a legitimate person.”

While stating he acted appropriately with government documents, Trump repeatedly referenced the discovery of classified documents in President Joe Biden’s possession, as well as claims the Biden family engaged in bribery and influence peddling schemes.

“I’m not like Biden that gets hundreds of millions of dollars from people and countries,” Trump said.

Election Polls

Trump, the leading presidential candidate in the crowded GOP field, is locked in a “virtual dead heat” in a hypothetical two-way matchup against President Joe Biden in Pennsylvania, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.

The poll, which was released on June 28, found that 47 percent of respondents supported Trump, leading Biden by one percentage point.

“Though battling fierce legal headwinds, Trump leaves the rest of the GOP pack (including Ron DeSantis) looking like ‘also rans’ and is running neck and neck with President Biden,” said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy in a news release.

Trump received 49 percent of support, with the Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finishing second with 25 percent of support. Tied at third with five percent of support were former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

The poll was conducted from June 22 to June 26 with 1,584 self-identified registered voters in Pennsylvania.

Ryan Morgan from NTD news contributed to this report.