An audio recording of former President Donald J. 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 appeared to contradict his recently asserted that the material he was referring to was just news clippings.
Portions of a transcript of the two-minute recording of Mr. Trump was cited by federal prosecutors in Mr. Trump on charges that he endangered national security secrets by mishandling classified documents after leaving office and then obstructing government efforts. to recover them.
The recording captured his conversation in July 2021 with a publisher and writer working on a memoir of Mr. Trump, Mark Meadows. In it, Mr. Trump discussed what he described as a “secret” plan about Iran that Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Department of Defense. Mr. Trump cited the document in rebuttal of an account that General Milley feared should prevent him from creating a crisis in Iran in the period after Mr. Trump lost his re-election bid last week. part of 2020.
The audio, which will likely appear as evidence in Mr. Trump in the case of the documents, played for the first time in public on Monday by CNN and also obtained by The New York Times.
Last week, in an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, Mr. Trump insisted that he did not present classified material at the meeting, which was recorded at Mr. Trump’s golf club. Trump in Bedminster, NJ Mr. Trump said he didn’t mean it. of any “secret” or “highly confidential” documents, but instead talks about “newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”
But the audio recording of the entire encounter suggests that Mr. Trump was not referring to the second-hand accounts, but to a specific piece of paper, or papers, in front of him.
The participation of Mr. Trump at the meeting in Bedminster are those who are working on an autobiography of Mr. Meadows as well as at least two of Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump, by his own account, appeared to flag or point to what he described to his guests as a document — described in the indictment as an “attack plan” — apparently to deny a story published a weeks earlier in The New Yorker describing General Milley’s concern that Mr. Trump could launch a strike against Iranian interests that he could use to help justify staying in office.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Trump said as he shuffled through what he called “a big pile of papers,” he could be heard conducting the recording.
“This thing just came up,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “It’s him. It’s the Department of Defense and him.”
“Wow,” a woman could be heard saying in the room, followed by the rustling of papers.
“Let’s see here,” said Mr. Trump, adding, “Look.” There was a short pause, during which he showed the people in the room something, and they began to laugh.
“It absolutely won my case, you know,” he said, adding that the papers were “very confidential, secret. This is classified information.”
“Isn’t that amazing?” Mr. Trump said later, adding, “The military did it and gave it to me.”
Then he appears to be leaning towards a proposal for book writers. “I think we can, right?” Said Mr. Trump. A woman answered, “I don’t know, we’ll have to see, you know, we’ll have to try to figure out a -“
“Declassify it,” Mr. Trump said. “Look, as president I could have declassified it, but now I can’t.”
“Now we have a problem,” said the woman, laughing.
“This is really cool,” Mr. Trump said, finally calling for someone to bring Coca-Cola to drink.
Some of Mr. Trump’s lawyers have known about the recording since March, when one of the aides who attended the meeting, Margo Martin, was questioned about it in an appearance before a grand jury, according to a person who is familiar with the events. Investigators working under special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed his copy of the tape after that appearance.
The full clip undercuts the arguments made by some of Mr. Trump that he was simply blustering and exaggerating or mischaracterizing the material he described in the recording.
The indictment accused Mr. Trump illegally withheld 31 individual national security documents and conspired with one of his personal aides, Walt Nauta, to block repeated government efforts to recover the records.
Mr. Nauta is scheduled to be arraigned in the Federal District Court in Miami on Tuesday. As part of the conditions of Mr. Trump’s release from his own arraignment, he was ordered not to disclose the case to Mr. Trump. Nauta or the list of 84 witnesses who participated in the special counsel’s investigation.
