An audio recording released by CNN on Monday appears to show former President Donald Trump discussing his holding of secret documents he allegedly did not declassify.

The recording is now a critical piece of evidence in special council Jack Smith’s indictment over the alleged mishandling of classified information. The recording comes from a July 2021 interview that Trump did about the memoir of his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

“Isn't it amazing? I have a big pile of papers. This thing just came up. Look. This was him,” Trump can be heard saying. “They presented me this - this is off the record - but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him."

The recordings took place at Trump’s Bedminster golf club. The indictment alleges that those in attendance at that meeting – a writer, publisher and two of Trump's staff members – were shown classified information about the plan to attack Iran.

Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe says the possibility of Trump being indicted in New Jersey is an “ace in the hole” for special counsel Jack Smith.

Meanwhile, some of New Jersey’s Republican lawmakers reacted to the news during a mad dash to complete the state budget by Friday.

“He’s somebody who is an egomaniac, he’s a narcissist, and he’s a showoff,” says state Sen. Jon Bramnick.

Trump is also heard telling the group that the documents are “secret information.”

“See, as president, I could have declassified it. Now we can’t this is still a secret. Isn’t that interesting? It’s so cool,” Trump is heard saying.

“It’s a disgrace, in my judgment, when you listen to someone like Donald Trump treat a classified document, a top-secret document, the way he did,” Bramnick says.

Bramnick says that Trump’s demeanor is “an insult to [the Republican Party.]”

“Eventually I hope a lot of people come to their senses,” he says.

Bramnick defeated two Trump Republican primary challengers in 2019. Since then, he’s become emboldened to increasingly speak out against a following in his own party that he labels “a cult.

“Part of the reason they believe in a cult, they’re so angry at the other side, that they don’t care what he does, because the hatred to the other side is so serious, that anybody who hates the other side, they don’t care what they do,” Bramnick says.

Former Gov. Chris Christie, who has harshly criticized Trump, did not return a request for comment to News 12.

But Christie said this past weekend before the tape dropped that Trump stonewalled the FBI by not returning classified documents he held at Mar-a-Lago and at Bedminster.

Some legal commentators are now arguing that Trump could be indicted again in New Jersey. Bramnick, who is a trial lawyer, says this would be dubious.

“I think in this case you’re not going to be able to move the venue or bring the same charges against him, because however those charges go in Florida, you only get one bite of the apple,” he says.

Work on the state budget continues ahead of the June 30 deadline.