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(Trends Wide) — Former President Donald Trump’s history of making inappropriate or questionable comments on recordings had another chapter Wednesday with new revelations from his post-White House life.
The latest example stemmed from an exclusive Trends Wide reporting that federal prosecutors have an audio recording of Trump acknowledging that he kept a classified Pentagon document after leaving office. The recording seems unlikely to make a dent in his political standing as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican Party nomination. But it could have real consequences in the legal limbo in which he lives.
Most people remember the recordings released by “Access Hollywood” in which Trump used vulgar language to claim that “stars” can grope women. The appearance of that recording just before the 2016 elections did not hurt him politically. But he later defended that claim as true, “unfortunately or fortunately,” in a video deposition, and New York juries recently found him liable for sexual assault after hearing the statement.
Then there’s the recording asking Georgia election officials to “find” votes that will help him swing the results of the 2020 presidential election. Those efforts to undo President Joe Biden’s victory in the swing state of Georgia They are part of an ongoing investigation.
This latest tape could also end up being part of a criminal case. The recording is in the possession of Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating the withholding of national defense information. Smith’s investigation has shown signs of drawing to a close, although it has not led to any criminal charges.
And why is this revelation so important?
“First of all, prosecutors love the tapes,” Trends Wide senior legal analyst Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, told Jake Tapper on “The Lead” Wednesday.
“If you have a subject recorded, it’s their own words, it’s their own voice. The defense can’t say, well, some witness is falsifying the truth.”
Trump in the recordings
The recording of the July 2021 meeting, which Trends Wide has not heard but has been described by multiple sources, seriously undermines Trump’s longstanding argument that he mentally declassified the material he took from the White House. He also adds his Bedminster club to possible places where Trump had classified documents after leaving office as president.
The recording of the meeting captures the sound of rustling paper, the sources said, though it is unclear if it was the actual document in question. That raises questions about the exposure of the document, as those attending the meeting included people who did not have security clearances that would have allowed them to access classified information, the sources said.
Smith has focused on the meeting as part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of national security secrets, and prosecutors have questioned witnesses about the recording and the document before a federal grand jury, reported Katelyn Polantz, Paula Reid and Trends Wide’s Kaitlan Collins.
In response to the report, a Trump campaign spokesperson said the “leaks” are intended to “inflame tensions” around Trump.
What’s in the document?
The recording also recalls the chaos at the end of his presidency. On the tape, sources tell Trends Wide, Trump points to a classified Pentagon document to try to refute the idea that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, had been trying to stop him from starting a war with Iran.
In July 2021, journalist Susan Glasser had reported that near the end of Trump’s presidency, Milley had raised concerns about Trump trying to attack Iran and had told the Joint Chiefs of Staff to make sure Trump did not issue illegal orders and to be informed if there were any concerns.
That New Yorker magazine report outraged Trump. In the recording, he mentions the document, which he claimed came from Milley, in response to that story, arguing that if others could see it, it would bring Milley into disrepute, the sources said. (The document Trump is referencing was not produced by Milley, Trends Wide was told.)
The existence of the document is not unusual. The Joint Chiefs of Staff has a directorate focused on developing and proposing strategies and plans to the president, and another that provides guidance on current plans and operations to force-wide commanders.
“You could pick any country and any scenario and there’s likely to be a contingency plan,” a US official told Trends Wide’s Haley Britzky.
It is even less unusual for Milley to have briefed Trump on those plans, the official added. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Milley’s job is to advise and brief the President on his military options as Commander-in-Chief.
“That doesn’t mean General Milley is a warmonger,” Beth Sanner, a former deputy director of National Intelligence who participated in intelligence briefings during her career, said on Trends Wide. “To the contrary. I spoke to him many times during my role as an intelligence officer, and he absolutely did not want to go to war with Iran.”
Trends Wide’s report on the recording also includes the incredible news that investigators have questioned Milley, who remains the country’s highest-ranking general.
an apparent contradiction
Most important here might be Trump’s acknowledgment that the document is classified, contradicting his argument that he had the unilateral power to declassify things and remove them from the White House.
During a Trends Wide forum in New Hampshire earlier this month, Trends Wide’s Kaitlan Collins asked Trump if he had shown anyone classified documents.
“Not really,” he told her, adding, “let me tell you, I have the absolute right to do what I want with them.”
Trump had said that any classified documents he had were declassified, which is apparently contradicted by the audio recording.
As Trends Wide reported, Trump’s comments on the tape suggest he wanted to share the information, but was aware of the limitations of his post-presidency ability to declassify records, two of the sources said.
Multiple legal storm clouds
The documents case is not the only legal issue hanging over Trump.
The former president, and the country he wants to lead again, need a color-coded calendar to keep track of all legal developments involving him, and help separate potential trials and appeals from upcoming debate and primary dates.
Aside from the ongoing investigations into the aftermath of the 2020 election, here’s what else is hanging over Trump.
- His criminal trial in New York, stemming from the investigation into his alleged role in a stealth money scheme, will coincide with the March primary.
- More immediately, there is a trial in October 2023 in the New York attorney general’s $250 million lawsuit against Trump, his eldest sons and the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization was already convicted of tax fraud in December.
- He has been found civilly liable for sexually abusing the former editor of E. Jean Carroll magazine in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. Appeals are ongoing. But Carroll, seizing on Trump’s comments on a Trends Wide forum earlier this spring, asked a judge to overturn her initial defamation case against him.
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