An audio recording in which Donald Trump appears to admit to keeping a classified document after leaving the White House has been obtained by US media.
In the recording, the former president can be heard rummaging through documents and saying, “This is top secret.”
Not independently confirmed by the BBC.
Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of mishandling sensitive files.
Mr Trump is heard saying “these are the documents” and referring to a document he called “top secret”.
It appears to be an audio recording referred to by federal prosecutors in the indictment against the former president.
Prosecutors say he showed classified documents to people without security clearance on two occasions, including a writer and two staff members, in one instance in July 2021 at his New Jersey golf club.
Mr. Trump faces 37 counts of illegally withholding classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to return them.
He denied any wrongdoing and said all the documents he took with him from the White House had been declassified.
In the exchange, published by CNN and the Washington Post on Monday, Mr Trump is heard describing a document he claims is about a possible attack on Iran.
“He said I want to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing?” Mr. Trump says at the start of the clip.
“I have a big stack of papers, this thing just showed up. Look,” he says.
“Look, as president I could have declassified it,” he says. “I can’t now, but it’s still a secret.”
In an interview last week with Fox News, Mr. Trump denied that he had provided classified documents to people who were not authorized to see them.
“There was no document. It was a huge amount of documents and everything talking about Iran and stuff,” Mr Trump said.