Confidential Trump documents: Investigators have an audio recording of the former president discussing a sensitive document he kept, sources said

Sources have confirmed to ABC News that federal investigators have an audio recording of former President Donald Trump from July 2021 in which he admits he held onto a sensitive military document.

The sources said the recording was made during a meeting in Bedminster that Trump had with people who were helping former chief of staff Mark Meadows with his book. The sources said that Trump indicated during the recording that he knew the document in question was classified.

The sources said Meadows was not present at the July 2021 meeting, but other Trump aides included Margot Martin.

Informed sources said witnesses were questioned in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation about the recording.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment. The news was first reported by CNN.

In the recording, which ABC News neither heard nor obtained, Trump can be heard attacking Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and referring to one document in particular that Trump claimed Milley had compiled. Trump, who said he still had the document, said it was about attacking Iran.

The specific nature of the document described in the recording is unknown.

The conversation took place several months before Trump’s representatives turned over 15 boxes of presidential records to the National Archives that included classified documents and more than a year before an FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last August.

During the search in August, investigators uncovered more than 100 classified documents after Trump’s team failed to comply with a June 2022 subpoena requesting all those records still in his possession. It is not clear if the document in question was part of the initial delivery to the archives or one seized by the FBI in August 2022 research.

A Trump spokesperson told ABC News:

“The leaks from the radical supporters behind this political persecution are meant to inflame tensions and continue the media harassment of President Trump and his supporters. It’s just further evidence that when it comes to President Trump, there are absolutely no depths they won’t dive into. They are pursuing their own witch hunt. The Department of Justice’s continued interference in the presidential election is disgraceful and this baseless investigation must stop wasting American taxpayer money on Democratic political goals.”