CNN
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Donald Trump’s lawyers handed over material in mid-March in response to a federal subpoena related to a classified US military document described by the former president on tape in 2021, but were unable to find the document itself, two people say sources to CNN.
Prosecutors issued the subpoena shortly after questioning a Trump aide before a federal grand jury about the audio recording of a July 2021 meeting at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. In the recording, Trump acknowledges that he kept a classified Pentagon document about a possible attack on Iran.
Prosecutors sought “any and all” documents and materials related to Mark Milley, Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Iran, including maps or invasion plans, the sources said. A similar subpoena was sent to at least one other attendee at the meeting, another source told CNN.
Sources say prosecutors made it clear to Trump’s lawyers after issuing the subpoena that they specifically wanted the Iran document he talked about on tape, as well as any material referencing classified information, such as memos from meeting, audio recordings or copies of the document, which can still be found. Trump possession.
The failure of Trump’s team to produce the document underscores the challenges the government has faced in trying to recover the classified material Trump took when he left the White House and to understand the movement of government records that Trump kept
In the course of the Justice Department’s investigation, prosecutors have expressed skepticism that all the classified documents have been returned. The federal government recovered dozens of classified documents from Trump at various times throughout 2022.
The special counsel’s office complained to a federal judge late last year that they could not be sure Trump had turned over all the classified documents in his possession, even after the search for FBI at Mar-a-Lago last August, CNN previously reported.
The dispute led to several sealed court proceedings where prosecutors tried to hold Trump in contempt, but the judge refused at the time and Trump’s team hired two people to search his properties.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
It’s unclear whether the government already has a copy of the Iran document from the boxes Trump’s legal team returned to the National Archives last year or recovered them in the FBI’s subsequent search.
Trump’s lawyers have said Trump and his staff did not review in advance the materials in the boxes the former president returned to the Archives and were not told what documents were recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
Trump’s lawyers would not have full access to the classified documents seized in the FBI search and have only recently been able to see the boxes that Trump returned to the archives in January 2022 with markers instead of the classified documents that had been returned in these boxes .
The document Trump refers to in the tape was created before Milley was named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CNN was told, and Milley was subsequently interviewed by investigators. The sources could not specify whether Trump had the document in question with him, as he discussed it at the 2021 meeting or was simply referring to it.
The recording, first reported by CNN, is now in the hands of special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump. Smith has focused on the meeting in recent months as part of the year-long criminal investigation into the former president’s handling of national security secrets.
The audio of Trump acknowledging he had a classified document undercuts Trump’s repeated claims that he declassified everything he took from the White House when he left office.
Trump said Thursday he knew nothing about the summer 2021 meeting and again called the Justice Department investigation a “witch hunt” and an attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said during a Fox News town hall. “I have the right to declassify myself as president.”
Trump aides and two people working on the autobiography of former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows attended the Bedminster meeting with Trump. This autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the meeting itself, where Trump recalls a report “typed” by Milley containing a plan to attack Iran.
The subpoenas were issued immediately after Trump aide Margo Martin, who attended the meeting, appeared before the grand jury in the Smith investigation and was questioned about it. That’s also when Trump’s legal team discovered prosecutors had the recording.
The Justice Department had access to a version of the recording before Martin’s grand jury appearance in March, according to a source. Martin’s attorney declined to comment.
After Trump received the subpoena, his legal team spoke with aides and gathered materials responsive to the subpoena, including transcripts of tapes made by Trump aides and any other documents that mentioned Milley or Iran, according to the sources
The legal team was unable to locate the document Trump mentions on the tape, the sources said, and it remains unclear whether it was ever returned to the government or where it is now.
Trump’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, declined to tell CNN this week whether the document was ever returned to the National Archives.
This story has been updated with additional details.
