Federal officials possess an audio recording of former President Donald Trump discussing his possession of a classified Pentagon document regarding a potential attack on Iran, citing multiple unnamed sources.
The recording is reportedly of a July 2021 meeting at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. In addition to the former president's advisers, the attendees included a number of individuals working on Mark Meadows' autobiography.
Trump Says He Kept Classified Document
The report comes as the former president's counsel seeks a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland to discuss the Justice Department's investigation into the discovery of classified documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and private club. Jack Smith will supervise investigations into Trump, including whether the former president mishandled classified documents and whether he obstructed justice by refusing to return White House documents he stole.
Trump has refuted any misconduct in connection with the investigation. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung issued the following statement to USA TODAY: "Leaks from radical partisans behind this political persecution are designed to inflame tensions and continue the media's harassment of President Trump and his supporters."
Wednesday on Truth Social, the former president criticized federal prosecutors and accused them of interfering with the 2024 presidential election. CNN reported the existence of the recording first. It has not been made public, and those with knowledge of it would not quote Trump verbatim.
However, for Justice Department prosecutors investigating Trump's possible mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House, the audio could be crucial evidence regarding Trump's state of mind and his understanding of the rules governing classified information; it could also reveal the path of certain sensitive documents after they left the White House.
Mar-a-Lago Raid
Trump's attorneys have implied that he did not realize he possessed classified documents after leaving the White House, or that he could have declassified them while in office.
The focus of Smith's investigation appears to be classified documents discovered last August at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida estate, and private club, weeks after the Justice Department demanded the return of all classified documents and Trump's attorney turned over documents deemed responsive to the subpoena.
The Washington Post reported that among the sensitive documents recovered by the FBI was a description of Iran's missile program. It is unclear whether this document corresponds to the one described in the audio recording.
The conversation in July 2021 occurred several months before Trump representatives turned over to the National Archives 15 crates of presidential records containing classified documents, and more than a year before the FBI searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2018.
During the August search, investigators uncovered more than 100 classified documents after Trump's team failed to comply with a subpoena issued in June 2022 demanding that he turn over all remaining copies of such records. Per ABC News, it is unknown whether the document allegedly referred to in the recording was among those initially given to the Archives or among those seized by the FBI in August 2022.
