An audio recording of former President Donald Trump 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 appears to contradict his recent assertion that the material he was referring to was simply news clippings.
Portions of a transcript of the two-minute recording of Trump were cited by federal prosecutors in the indictment of Trump on charges that he had put national security secrets at risk by mishandling classified documents after leaving office and then obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. The recording captured his conversation in July 2021 with a publisher and writer working on a memoir by Trump’s final chief of staff, Mark Meadows. In it, Trump discussed what he described as a “secret” plan regarding Iran drawn up by Gen. Mark A. Milley, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, and the defence department. Trump was citing the document in rebutting an account that Milley feared having to keep him from manufacturing a crisis with Iran in the period after Trump lost his reelection bid in late 2020. The audio, which is likely to feature as evidence in Trump’s trial in the documents case, was played for the first time Monday by CNN and was also obtained by NYT.
Portions of a transcript of the two-minute recording of Trump were cited by federal prosecutors in the indictment of Trump on charges that he had put national security secrets at risk by mishandling classified documents after leaving office and then obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. The recording captured his conversation in July 2021 with a publisher and writer working on a memoir by Trump’s final chief of staff, Mark Meadows. In it, Trump discussed what he described as a “secret” plan regarding Iran drawn up by Gen. Mark A. Milley, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, and the defence department. Trump was citing the document in rebutting an account that Milley feared having to keep him from manufacturing a crisis with Iran in the period after Trump lost his reelection bid in late 2020. The audio, which is likely to feature as evidence in Trump’s trial in the documents case, was played for the first time Monday by CNN and was also obtained by NYT.