During an interview with Fox News, former President Donald Trump, who is also a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, addressed allegations from his federal indictment regarding the sharing of a secret document. Trump made it clear that there did not exist any such official document. Instead, he mentioned a compilation of news articles, magazine pieces, and general papers. He highlighted that, as he was no longer holding office, he lacked the authority to disclose any information, stating, “There was nothing to declassify.”

Trump clarified that his previous statement regarding his inability to declassify was in reference to his status as a former president, rather than the existence of a specific document. Furthermore, he pointed out that the papers he possessed covered various subjects, including Iran, but they were not classified documents. Earlier in the interview, he denied having any awareness of plans for war with Iran and confidently asserted that everything had already been made public.

“These were newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles, there was nothing to declassify.”

“It wasn’t a document. I had lots of paper. I had copies of newspaper articles. I had copies of magazines.”

“When I said that I couldn’t declassify it now, that’s because I wasn’t President. I never made any bones about that. When I’m not President, I can’t declassify. … But that wasn’t a document. Bret, 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 it 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.”

In a preceding part of the interview, Trump clarified that he had no knowledge of any Iran war plans, “that I know of. But everything was declassified.”