Audio emerges of Trump apparently discussing ‘highly confidential’ classified docs detailing potential Iran attack
June 26, 2023
An audio recording has emerged of former President Donald Trump apparently discussing classified material in July 2021 related to a potential military strike against Iran.
In the two-minute recording, obtained by CNN on Monday, Trump, 77, is heard shuffling through papers and discussing a purported plan hatched by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to launch an attack against the US adversary while acknowledging that the information is “highly confidential” and “secret.”
“Well, with Milley — let me see that. I’ll show you an example,” Trump’s distinctive voice is heard saying on the recording.
“He said that I wanted to attack Iran — isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers. This thing just came up, look. This was him. They presented me this,” the former president says, apparently while showing off the classified document.
Trump notes, “This is off the record” as he continues discussing the sensitive material.
“This was him. This was the Defense Department and him, we looked at some, this was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him … all sorts of stuff … pages long.”
The taped conversation reportedly happened at Trump’s Bedminster, NJ, golf club, where the former president met with individuals helping write an autobiography of Mark Meadows, Trump’s last White House chief of staff.
A redacted transcript of the recording was included in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against Trump and is presented as a key piece of evidence in the government’s case against the former president over accusations that he willfully retained national defense information after leaving office.
Smith noted in the indictment that “none” of the parties involved in the conversation — a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff — “possessed a security clearance.”
Boxes allegedly containing classified documents found in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
“Isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know? Except it is like highly confidential, secret information,” Trump says in the tape.
In the two-minute audio recording, Trump and a staffer — reportedly his communications aide Margo Martin — also joke about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, which Smith did not transcribe in the indictment.
“Hillary would print that out all the time, you know. Her private emails,” Trump’s staffer says.
“No, she’d send it to Anthony Weiner,” Trump responds, referring to the former Democratic congressman whose laptop was found by the FBI to have thousands of emails from Clinton on it.
Trump noted in the recording that the document he was discussing wasn’t declassified.
After joking about Weiner and Clinton, Trump goes back to discussing the purported Iran attack plan.
“See, as president I could have declassified it,” Trump says. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
“Now we have a problem,” his staffer responds.
“Isn’t that interesting,” Trump says.
“It’s so cool,” he adds, before asking someone to “bring some Cokes in, please” as the audio ends.
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Trump dismisses leaked audio of him talking classified war plans as ‘another hoax’
June 27, 2023
Former President Donald Trump dismissed leaked audio of him discussing classified strategies for a potential attack on Iran after leaving office as “another hoax” as he campaigned in New Hampshire Tuesday.
“I would say election interference more than anything else. It’s a disgrace that they can do it,” the 77-year-old told Fox News Digital. “Everything was fine. We did nothing wrong and everybody knows it.”
CNN published the recording Monday evening. Quotes from it had been circulating for weeks and it served as a key piece of evidence in the 37-count federal indictment Trump is facing for alleged hoarding of classified material.
In the tape, which was recorded in July 2021, Trump was reflecting on his presidency to individuals working on his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’s memoir.
The former president suggested to his listeners that the plans came from Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At the time, Trump was peeved about a New Yorker article in which Milley claimed he fought to prevent the 45th president from attacking Iran during his final weeks in the White House, according to the cable network.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Trump was heard saying in the snippet as papers rustled in the background. “I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this – this is off the record but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”
“See, as president I could have declassified it,” Trump added, seemingly undermining his claim last year that he had already declassified material he took upon leaving the White House. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
Two of the people Trump speaks to in the audio are believed to be Kate Hartson and Louise Burke, who had started All Season Press, a conservative publishing company, that same year.
Louise Burke, left, and Kate Hartson have started All Seasons Press, a conservative publishing house.
All Seasons Press published Meadows’s book, “The Chief’s Chief,” in which he recounted his Trump administration days. Meadows’s memoir reportedly helped give federal investigators fodder against Trump in the classified document probe.
Hartson, Burke and Meadows did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump also stood by his earlier insistence Tuesday that “there was no document” and “there was nothing to declassify, these were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”
“I said it very clearly – I had a whole desk full of lots of papers, mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of different plans, copies of stories, having to do with many, many subjects, and what was said was absolutely fine,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
Trump seemed unsure about whether there would be additional recordings that could manifest, but indicated he wasn’t concerned “because I don’t do things wrong; I do things right.”
Former President Trump appears in court after getting hit with classified document charges.
The former president sounded off on the leaked audio ahead of his address to the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women’s annual fundraising gala in Concord.
Federal authorities have seized hundreds of pages of classified documents from Trump’s presidential days, including ones marked “Top Secret.”
Nestled in the 37-count indictment lodged against Trump by Smith’s team is an obstruction charge alleging the former president worked to undermine the investigation.
In
this photo illustration, pages are viewed from the unsealed federal
indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump on June 9, 2023.
Former
President Donald Trump was indicted by the Department of Justice over
his handling of classified documents after he left the White House.
This
image showing stacks of boxes in a bathroom was featured attached as
evidence in the indictment against former President Donald Trump.Trump pleaded not guilty to the indictment earlier this month, marking the first time a sitting or former president was slapped with federal charges.
He is currently the frontrunner in the Republican primary for president.
EDITOR'S NOTE: How about this one for a good laugh? Trump claimed the boxes seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago contained golf clothing and golf equipment.
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