Trump’s claim that he didn’t have a classified document is contradicted by audio
Trump’s claim that he didn’t have a classified document is contradicted by audio
Donald J. Trump’s recent claim that the information he was referring to was just news clippings appears to be in conflict with an audio recording of him in 2021 discussing what he called a “highly confidential” document about Iran that he acknowledged he could not declassify because he was out of office.
Federal prosecutors used excerpts from a transcript of the two-minute recording of Mr. Trump in their indictment of him on charges that he mishandled classified documents after leaving office and then obstructed government efforts to recover them, putting national security secrets at risk.
The conversation, which took place in July 2021, was between Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s final chief of staff, and a publisher and writer who were both working on his memoir. In it, Mr. Trump reviewed what he called a “secret” Iran strategy developed by the Defence Department and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Milley anticipated that Mr. Trump would fabricate a crisis with Iran in the time following his loss in the 2020 presidential election, and Mr. Trump used the paper to refute that claim.
The recording was played publicly for the first time on Monday by CNN and was also obtained by The New York Times. It will likely be used as evidence in Mr. Trump’s trial in the documents case.
In a recent interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Mr. Trump asserted that he had not disclosed any secret information at the meeting that had taken place at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. Rather than talking about “secret” or “highly confidential” papers, Mr. Trump claimed he was referring to “newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles.”
However, it appears from the audio recording of the entire conversation that Mr. Trump wasn’t referring to unreliable sources, but rather to a specific document (or documents) that were in front of him.
In addition to those working on Mr. Meadows’ autobiography, Mr. Trump was joined in the Bedminster meeting by at least two of his own staffers. In his own account, Mr. Trump appears to brandish or point to what he described to his visitors as a document — referred to in the indictment as a “plan of attack” — ostensibly to refute a story that appeared in The New Yorker a week earlier and described General Milley’s worry that Mr. Trump might launch an attack against Iranian interests that he could use to help justify his continued tenure in office.
“Isn’t it incredible?” As he moves through what he refers to as “a big pile of papers,” which is audible on the recording, Trump remarks.
Mr. Trump claims that “this issue simply came out,” adding, “This was him. He and the Defence Department were involved.
There is a woman in the room saying, “Wow,” and then there is a rustle of papers.
Mr. Trump says, “Let’s see here,” adding, “Look.” He appears to show something to the audience during a little pause, and they begin to chuckle.
He continues, “This totally wins my case, you know,” mentioning the papers as being “highly confidential, secret.” This information is confidential.
“Isn’t that amazing?” Later, Mr. Trump continues, “This was done by the military and given to me.”
He then seems to lean into making a proposal to the book’s authors. “I believe we can, correct?” Trump declares. I don’t know, we’ll have to see, you know, we’ll have to try to figure out a way, a lady replies.
“Declassify it,” Mr. Trump demands. “See, I could have declassified it as president, but I can’t now.”
“Now we have a problem,” the woman chuckles.
Mr. Trump exclaims, “It’s so cool,” before requesting that Coca-Cola be brought in for him to consume.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, avoided commenting on the recording’s content in a statement, focusing instead on a remark the candidate made during the meeting about former Representative Anthony D. Weiner’s involvement in the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s personal email server.
According to Mr. Cheung, the audio clip “provides context proving, once again, that President Trump did nothing wrong at all,” and Mr. Trump was “speaking rhetorically and also quite humorously about” Mr. Weiner when he accused “the media and the Trump-haters” of taking “the bait.”
According to a source familiar with the events, some of Mr. Trump’s attorneys have been aware of the recording since March, when Margo Martin, one of the assistants who attended the meeting, was questioned about it during an appearance before the grand jury. After that appearance, investigators working for special counsel Jack Smith issued a subpoena for her copy of the recording.
Some of Mr. Trump’s defenders said that he was just blustering and exaggerating or misrepresenting the stuff he revealed in the recording, but the complete clip refutes their claims.
In addition to colluding with one of his personal assistants, Walt Nauta, to thwart the government’s repeated attempts to recover the papers, Mr. Trump is accused in the indictment of illegally hanging onto 31 specific national security materials.
Mr. Trump was ordered not to discuss the case with Mr. Nauta or a list of 84 witnesses who took part in the special counsel inquiry as part of the terms of his release following his arraignment.
