Fox News is calling out Former President Donald Trump for his defense of how he handled classified documents, even as evidence is leaked to the press in the unprecedented legal case brought against him.
One major piece of evidence is a recently released audio clip from July 2021 in which he showed his aides some documents that he claimed in the clip were “secret.”
“This was done by the military and given to me. See as president, I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” he said in the clip as he showed the documents to the aides/staffers.
Listen:
The Trump audio:
“See as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
“Now we have a problem,” a staffer responds. pic.twitter.com/ftNqOTnfZn
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 27, 2023
During a Fox News interview last week, recorded before the audio clip was released, Trump claimed he’d never shared any “secret” documents with his staffers, period.
“There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things. And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles,” he told the network.
But following CNN’s publication of the audio clip, Trump changed his story multiple times.
First, he posted a Truth Social on Monday claiming the audio clip exonerated him.
“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. This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!” he wrote.
Also on Monday, he told Fox News that this whole affair is “just another hoax.”
“We did absolutely nothing wrong. This is just another hoax. It’s called, I would say, election interference more than anything else. It’s a disgrace that they can do it. Next question. But everything was fine. We did nothing wrong, and everybody knows it,” he said.
But then on Tuesday, he commented again.
Speaking with Semafor, this time he claimed he’d just been bragging/talking junk in the audio clip released by CNN.
“I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth. It was bravado. I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents,” he claimed.
“I just held up a whole pile of — my desk is loaded up with papers. I have papers from 25 different things. … I have no regrets. I didn’t have a classified document. There was no classified document on my desk,” he added.
According to Semafor, this appears to be a new legal strategy: “The latest comments suggested a new potential legal argument from the former president: That he was overselling the material he was showing.”
But is it a good strategy? Not according to national security attorney Bradley Moss, who cited a couple reasons why this strategy is doomed to failure.
“One, they’re not charging him with retaining that document. Two, the relevance of the comments in the audio are they speak to Trump’s intent and awareness of the limitations on his ability to have and share classified records,” he told Semafor.
“And three, I have no reason to believe Smith would have included this issue without getting clarifying testimony from the various witnesses,” he added.
Some social media critics also appear to believe this new legal strategy is a dud:
The man is a professional liar you’d think he could come up with something better than…I was bravado-ing…
— Kff ️️☮️☮️ (@KFFNCOACH) June 28, 2023
From “I had every right” to “It was all bravado”, keep talking Trump, you’re making the prosecution’s job easier.
— Sterling (@GreenShades9) June 28, 2023
If his law team had a full head of hair 3 weeks ago, they are all completely bald today because they’ve been pulling out their hair ever since. Keep talkin you bloated yam!
— natnewscot (now on ) (@natnewscot21) June 28, 2023
Even to be able to admit something like that is literally wrong. So an X president admitted he was full of shit like an 8th grader and his cult followers are okay with this? The man has some serious issues.
— John Doe (@BernieMiller8) June 28, 2023
He can say it was just bravado but he had the exact highly classified documents he described in that taped conversation. And he confirmed on that tape that they were still classified.
— Mike (@FactsDoMatter4) June 28, 2023
Others say otherwise and argue that it’s all a hoax, just as Trump has said. They also note that the leaking of the audio tape to CNN is technically a crime.
Look:
The leaked Trump tape doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know: As president, Trump received records as Commander in Chief. Nothing on this tape suggests he wasn’t authorized to have the record. The Constitution, various laws, and court precedent establishes that the…
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) June 27, 2023
Trump when he left WH declassified them. They’d like to have you believe it was still classified, but it absolutely was NOT. Bill Clinton did this when he left as did Obama and so many other presidents. The President is given the authority to declassify any & all doc’s.
— America First MAGA – Deplorable E Young (@YoungDeplorable) June 27, 2023
Funny that the ACTUAL crime here as I’m who I’m the government is leaking information is just being swept aside
— Mark Sullivan (@Sullie870125) June 27, 2023
This is a Biden DOJ hoax. They’re spreading lies by showing what they know are lies when I’m talking off the record and not as president. This was bravado on Trump’s part.
— Marc (@LemanR1231) June 28, 2023
Fox News also took note of Trump’s changing statements.
During Tuesday’s episode of Fox News’ “America Reports,” the network’s hosts played Trump’s contradictory statements back-to-back.
Listen:
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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