An audio of Trump in which he admits to having "highly confidential" documents comes to light

The statements belie his claims that he had previously declassified the files.

Trump assures that the "manipulated" audio makes him look guilty when in fact it "excuses" him

The US network CNN has published an audio of former US President Donald Trump in which he admits to having "highly classified" documents, which would refute his previous claims that he had previously declassified these files.

"This totally wins my case, you know? Except it's something highly classified," Trump declared in audio files from July 2021, referring to files on an alleged US plan to invade Iran that he was sharing with other people from his team that they could not have access to such information.

"You see, as president I could have declassified them. Now I can't, you know but this is still secret," added the former president, who was trying to show that the plans for war with Iran already existed before his arrival at the White House.

"I'll give you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. (...) They presented me with this (this is unofficial). This was his. This was both his and the United States Department of Defense. (... ) This was not planned by me," Trump said in recordings he was aware of, according to CNN.

For his part, Trump has assured that the audio leak is "illegal" and that they have "manipulated" the tape to make him look guilty when in reality it "excuses" him. "This continuous Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!", the former president has published on the Truth Social social network.

The former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has also assured that he had the right to have documents that he had already "unilaterally declassified without going through any formal process."

Trump faces up to 37 criminal charges ranging from willful withholding of national defense information to conspiring to obstruct justice in the investigation against him into more than 300 classified documents found at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, in Florida.

Likewise, the former president did not inform the Secret Services that he was storing boxes with classified documents. The tycoon would have gone so far as to order his assistant to move the papers from one place to another so that his legal team would not see them and even suggested destroying them.