The recording, which was referenced in the federal indictment against Trump and first aired Monday on CNN, shows Trump describing a multi-page document he alleged was about a possible attack on Iran.
“Look, as president I could declassify it, now I can’t. … Isn’t that interesting? It’s great,” Trump said in the recording.
Trump faces 37 felony charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents. In a recent interview, Trump admitted that he did not know that the Iranian document was among the materials in the boxes found at Mar-a-Lago – his private club and residence in Florida – of the FBI and Justice Department. He also went on to claim that everything he brought with him was declassified. He pleaded not guilty earlier this month during an arraignment at the federal courthouse in Miami.
The 49-page indictment by prosecutors outlines two instances in which Trump disclosed sensitive papers in insecure environments, post-presidency, to individuals who lacked the necessary security clearances needed to view any classified information. The second instance described in the indictment is a meeting in August or September 2021 where Trump showed an unnamed representative of his political action committee a classified map of “Country B,” and stated in individually he doesn’t need to share the map.
The audio recording was cited in the indictment, which describes a meeting Trump held at his Bedminster golf club in July 2021 with two staffers, as well as the publisher and writer of the upcoming book. People familiar with the matter say the book is an upcoming memoir by Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Meadows described the scene in his book, “The Chief’s Chief,” which showed Trump describing a four-page document he claimed was an invasion plan for Iran that he said was written by the Defense Department. and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman. of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At the time, Milley was a frequent target of Trump’s ire, and the former president hoped to push back on articles and books in which Milley described the need to stop Trump from irresponsible military action in Iran.
Military officials previously told The Post that Milley did not recommend attacking Iran. But it is routine for the Pentagon to prepare memos outlining various military options for responding to a foreign adversary, people familiar with Milley’s briefings on the president said. The Pentagon has a memo for a military strike on Iran as a conceivable option, but Milley did not write it, these people said.
During the nearly two-minute recording, Trump described a document as “highly confidential” before saying “this is classified information.” At one point he said, “Maybe you didn’t believe me, but now you believe me. Unbelievable.”
The audio also contradicts what Trump told Fox News anchor Bret Baier in an interview that aired last week. In the interview, Trump denied referring to an actual document during the Bedminster conversation; instead, he said he was referring to “newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”
Judge Aileen M. Cannon set the first pretrial conference in the case for July 14.
