CONCORD, N.H. – Former President Donald Trump insists that he did “nothing wrong” in his first public comments since an audio recording was obtained where he was allegedly discussing what he described as “highly confidential” documents.
Speaking to Fox News after a campaign event in New Hampshire, the former commander-in-chief called the latest update a hoax brought on by his political opponents.
“I would say election interference more than anything else. It’s a disgrace that they can do it,” Trump said. “Everything was fine. We did nothing wrong and everybody knows it.”
After the audio came out on Monday, Trump posted a series of tweets to Truth Social, attacking Special Counsel Jack Smith while trying to shine the light on what he calls corruption in the political system.
“The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and ‘spun’ a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,” Trump wrote.
The tape was recorded on July 21, 2021, at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges and pled not guilty to all counts. While the recording has been mentioned previously, this is the first time it has been heard publicly.
The audio recording was first published by CNN.
“I said it very clearly – I had a whole desk full of lots of papers, mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of different plans, copies of stories, having to do with many, many subjects, and what was said was absolutely fine,” Trump said. “We did nothing wrong. This is a whole hoax.”
He added that he doesn’t see anything wrong with the audio 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 said. “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 is Fox, too.”
On the recording, Trump is heard attacking his Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and is heard shuffling papers before he referenced a document that Trump later would say is still top secret.
“Wait a minute, let’s see here. I just found, isn’t that amazing?” Trump says. “This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. This was done by the military and given to me. As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t.”
