The US media has uncovered an audio clip in which Donald Trump appears to admit to keeping a confidential document after leaving the White House.

The former president can be heard rummaging through papers and stating, “This is highly confidential,” in the recording.

The BBC has not independently verified it.

Mr. Trump has pled not guilty to federal allegations of mishandling classified information.

CNN was the first to disclose the nearly two-minute footage, which comes from a July 2021 interview with staffers working on his former chief of staff Mark Meadows’ memoir.

Mr Trump is heard stating, “These are the papers,” referring to a “highly confidential” document.

It appears to be an audio tape that federal prosecutors referred to in their indictment of the former president.

Prosecutors allege that Donald Trump showed confidential documents to people without security clearance on two times, including a writer and two members of staff, in one case in July 2021 at his golf club in New Jersey.

Mr. Trump is accused of illegally keeping sensitive materials and impeding the government’s efforts to recover them.

He has denied any misconduct and stated that all documents he took from the White House had been declassified.

Mr Trump is heard outlining a document that he claims is about possibly attacking Iran during the exchange, which was obtained by CNN and the Washington Post on Monday.

“He claimed I intended to invade Iran. Isn’t it incredible?” Mr Trump says near the start of the video.

“I have a lot of papers, and this just came up.” “Take a look,” he says.

“See, as president, I could have declassified it,” he explains. “Now, you know, I can’t, but this is still a secret.”

Mr Trump denied providing confidential materials to those who were not authorized to see them in an interview with Fox News last week.

“There was no record. “There were a lot of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things,” Mr Trump remarked.