CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump’s history of making inappropriate or questionable comments on tape took another chapter Wednesday with new revelations from his post-White House life.
The latest example came from CNN’s exclusive report that federal prosecutors have an audio recording of Trump acknowledging that he kept a classified Pentagon document after he left office. The tape seems unlikely to affect his political standing as the front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2024. But it could have real consequences in the legal limbo he lives in.
Most people remember Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape using vulgar language to argue that “stars” can pick up women. The appearance of that tape just before the 2016 election did him no harm politically. But he later defended that claim as true, “unfortunately or fortunately,” in a video statement, and jurors in New York recently found him guilty of sexual assault after the statement was played back to them.
And then there’s the tape of him asking election officials in Georgia to “find” votes to help him change the results of the 2020 presidential election. These efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the peach state are part of an ongoing investigation.
This latest tape could also end up being part of a criminal case. The tape 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 nearing its end, although no criminal charges have been filed.
So why is this revelation so significant?
“First of all, prosecutors love the tapes,” CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, told Jake Tapper on “The Lead” on Wednesday.
“If you have a recorded track, those are his own words, that’s his own voice. The defense can’t say, well, some witness is falsifying the truth.”
The recording of the July 2021 meeting, which CNN has not heard but was described by multiple sources, seriously undermines Trump’s argument that he mentally declassified the material he brought with him from the White House. It also adds his Bedminster club to the potential locations where Trump had classified documents after leaving office.
The recording of the meeting captures the noise of the paper, the sources said, although it is unclear whether it is the actual document in question. That raises questions about the document’s exposure, as those attending the meeting included people who did not have security clearances that would have allowed them access to 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, Katelyn reported. CNN’s Polantz, Paula Reid and Kaitlan Collins.
In response to the report, a Trump campaign spokesman said the “leaks” are intended to “inflame tensions” around Trump.
The recording also recalls the chaos at the end of his presidency. In the tape, sources told CNN, Trump points to a classified Pentagon document to try to refute the idea that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, had been trying to prevent a war with Iran from starting.
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 to make sure Trump did not issue illegal orders and to be informed if there were there was some concern.
That New York story outraged Trump. On the tape, he mentions the document, which he said came from Milley, in response to that story, arguing that if others could see it, it would discredit Milley, the sources said. (The document Trump refers to was not produced by Milley, CNN was told.)
The existence of the document is not at all unusual. The Joint Chiefs of Staff has one directorate focused on developing and proposing strategies and plans for the president, and another that provides guidance on current plans and operations to force-wide commanders.
“You can pick any country and any scenario and there’s likely to be a contingency plan,” a US official told CNN’s Haley Britzky.
It is even less unusual that Milley briefed Trump on such plans, the official added. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Milley’s job is to advise and brief the president on his military options as commander in chief.
“This does not mean that General Milley is a warmonger,” Beth Sanner, a former deputy director of national intelligence who sat in on intelligence briefings during his career, told CNN. “Not even close. I spoke to him many times in my role as an intelligence officer, and he did not want to go to war with Iran.”
CNN’s report on the taping also includes the incredible development that investigators have questioned Milley, who is still the nation’s top general.
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 CNN town hall in New Hampshire earlier this month, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Trump if he had ever shown classified documents to anyone.
“Not really,” he told her, adding, “Let me tell you, I have the absolute right to do whatever I want with them.”
He had said that all the classified documents he had were declassified, which seems to contradict the audio recording.
As CNN reported, Trump’s comments about the tape suggested he wanted to share the information but was aware of the limitations on his post-presidency ability to declassify the records, two of the sources said.
The documents case isn’t the only legal matter hanging over Trump.
The former president, and the country he wants to lead again, needs a color-coded calendar to keep track of all the legal developments involving him, and to help separate possible trials and appeals from upcoming debates and dates of primary schools
In addition to ongoing investigations into the fallout from the 2020 election, here’s what else Trump is getting at.
His criminal trial in New York, which stems from the investigation into his alleged role in a hush money scheme, will coincide with the March primary contests.
More immediately, there is a trial in October 2023 for the New York attorney general’s $250 million lawsuit against Trump, his grown children and the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization was already convicted of criminal tax fraud in December.
