There are signs of a turn in the debate about ex-President Trump taking away secret documents. US journalist Bob Woodward presents transcripts and audio files intended to prove that Trump knew the secret status of documents. It's about his correspondence with Kim Jong Un.
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 deliberately taken secret documents with him after leaving office.
US authorities accuse him of exactly that. This should also include correspondence between Trump and North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un. Trump took many of these letters with him after his term in office in January 2021. It wasn't until February 2022 that he returned it.
Now investigative journalist Bob Woodward has released audio recordings and transcripts of conversations with Trump, suggesting Trump knew full well the letters were classified. 27 of these letters between him and Kim Jong Un are said to have been classified as secret.
Excerpts from "The Trump Tapes", an audio book by the journalist with Trump interviews, have appeared in the "Washington Post". Accordingly, Trump says to Woodward about the Kim letters: "I'll let you look in. But don't say I gave them to you, okay?" According to Woodward, Trump made this statement in December 2019. A short time later, he asked Trump to be allowed to see his answers to the dictator. Trump's response to the request: "Oh, they're top secret."
As Woodward describes in the audio book, he was allowed to see the letters in a White House office. He was supervised by an official. 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 a kind of background to the raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in early August 2022. FBI investigators had secured thousands of documents, some of which are or may have been classified - their classification was often unclear. By keeping the documents in his private home after leaving office, Trump could have made himself liable to prosecution.
The case is now in the hands of 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. Trump hopes this will limit the damage.
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 means that they can always be used for investigations. Trump's lawyers tried to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court rejected their request.
