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Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un (2018 in Singapore)
Photo: SAUL LOEB/ AFP
So far, Donald Trump has adamantly denied any allegation that he was guilty of anything wrong with documents from his time in the White House.
Among other things, the former US President denies having taken secret documents with him after leaving office.
In cases in which it can be proven that documents were transported, he tries to pull himself out of the affair with legal tricks.
Among other things, the allegations by the US authorities concern the correspondence between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Trump took many of these letters with him after his term in office in January 2021.
They were only returned in February 2022.
Now investigative journalist Bob Woodward has released audio recordings and transcripts of conversations with Trump, suggesting Trump knew full well the letters were classified.
Excerpts from “The Trump Tapes”, an audio book by the journalist with Trump interviews, have appeared in the “Washington Post”.
In it, Trump tells Woodward about the Kim letters: "I'll let you look in.
But don't say I gave it to you, okay?" According to Woodward, the statement was made in December 2019.
A month later he called Trump and asked to be allowed to see his answers to the dictator in Pyongyang.
Trump's response: "Oh, they're top secret."
As Woodward describes in the audio book, he was allowed to view the letters in an office in the White House.
An official was in the room.
Both the original Korean version and the English translation were presented to him.
According to Woodward, the letters were transcribed into a dictaphone.
The journalist writes that there were no recognizable confidentiality notices on the letters.
The new revelations provide something of a prelude to the raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in early August 2022. FBI investigators had secured boxes of documents, some of which are classified.
By keeping the documents in his private home after leaving office, Trump could have made himself liable to prosecution.
Supreme Court rejects Trump request
The case is now also in the highest courts in the country.
In the legal tug-of-war over the confiscated government documents, the US Department of Justice is addressing a significant hurdle for the investigation.
The agency applied to an appeals court to reverse the appointment of a special auditor.
He is supposed to filter out the papers that investigators should not have access to - for example with a view to attorney-client privilege.
The special examiner was appointed by a district judge at the request of Trump's attorneys.
The Ministry of Justice had already been able to persuade the Court of Appeal to exempt around a hundred documents with a secret note from an assessment by the special examiner.
This allows them to be used for investigations.
Trump's lawyers tried to appeal to the US Supreme Court, but their request was rejected.
Trump's lawyers argued in the Supreme Court that the 76-year-old had unlimited authority to declassify documents during his tenure as president.
Therefore, markings alone cannot determine whether a document is still classified or whether Trump has released it.
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