Former President Donald Trump said he followed the law in handling sensitive government documents discovered at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Mr Trump, speaking at a Fox News town hall on Thursday, addressed Special Counsel Jack Smith’s inquest a day after CNN reported that prosecutors had an audio recording in which the ex-president discusses a document on Iran and underlines the limits of what he could do with classified information.
The clip would appear to undermine Mr Trump’s claim that he declassified all documents.
“All I know is that everything I did was right,” he told Fox’s Sean Hannity. “We have the Presidential Records Act, which I complied with 100 percent.”
Mr Trump has pivoted to attack President Biden’s classified document issues.
“Biden has 1,850 boxes, with a lot of classified stuff he’s not supposed to have in his case. I have the right to declassify as president,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump appeared to confuse the number of documents Mr. Biden gave to the University of Delaware with a smaller set of classified documents from Mr. Biden’s time as vice president, which were discovered in a think tank office in Washington and at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Federal agents searched documents at the university in January and February. Officers recovered some documents following the search, but the government did not disclose that the searches had located classified documents.
Mr Trump said Mr Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who faces other legal issues, are protected by a legal double standard.
“They’re protected, and it’s a one-sided system — it’s a very unfair system, but they’re protected,” Trump said.
Mr. Trump pointed to Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, which contained details of overseas business deals and remains of interest to House GOP investigators investigating possible corruption.
“When you look at all this crime like there’s so much in the laptop,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s so bad. It’s so evil, and yet they don’t want to do anything.