CNN
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CNN has exclusively obtained the audio recording of the 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Donald Trump talks about having classified documents that he did not declassify.
The recording, which first aired on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” includes new details of the conversation that is critical evidence in Trump’s indictment of special counsel Jack Smith for mishandling information classified, including a time when Trump appeared to indicate he had a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran.
“These are the papers,” Trump says in the audio recording, as he discusses the Pentagon’s attack plans, a quote that was not included in the indictment.
In the two-minute audio recording, Trump and his aides also joke about Hillary Clinton’s emails after the former president said the document was “classified information.”
“Hillary was printing it all the time, you know. Her private emails,” the Trump staffer said.
“No, I would send it to Anthony Weiner,” Trump replied, referring to the former Democratic congressman, drawing laughter from the room.
Trump’s remarks about the audio recording, saying “those are the papers” and referring to something he calls “highly confidential” that he appears to be showing to others in the room, could undercut the claims of the former president in an interview last week with Fox News’ Bret. Baier that he had no documents with him.
“There was no document. It was a bunch of papers and everything else that talked about Iran and stuff,” Trump told Fox. “And it may or may not have been sustained, but that wasn’t a document. He had no documents, per se. There was nothing to declassify. It was newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”
Trump pleaded not guilty earlier this month to 37 charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
The audio recording comes from an interview Trump gave in July 2021 at his Bedminster compound to people working on the memoir of Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff. The special counsel’s indictment alleges that the attendees — a writer, an editor and two Trump staffers — were shown classified information about the plan to attack Iran.
The episode is one of two referenced in the indictment in which prosecutors allege Trump showed classified information to others who did not have security clearances.
CNN previously reported that Trump at the time was furious about one New York article about President Gen. Mark Milley, who said Milley argued against striking Iran and was concerned Trump would start a full-scale conflict.
The special counsel’s office declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Trump’s lawyers for comment.
This is the “most important” piece of evidence in Trump’s impeachment, according to CNN’s legal analyst
The recording, obtained by CNN, begins with Trump stating that “they are sick people,” while his staff claims that there had been a “coup d’état” against Trump.
“Like when Milley talks about, ‘Oh, you’re going to try to do a coup.’ No, they were trying to do it before they were even sworn in,” the staffer says, according to the audio.
The next part of the conversation is mainly included in the impeachment, although the audio makes it clear that there is some shuffling of papers as Trump tells the audience that he has an example to show.
“He said he wanted to attack Iran, isn’t that incredible?” Trump says as the sound of papers being shuffled can be heard. “I have a big pile of papers, this just came out. Look. This was him. I was presented with this, this is not on the record but, I was presented with this. This was him. This was the Department of Defense and him.”
The indictment includes ellipsis where the recording obtained by CNN shows where Trump and his aide begin discussing emails from Clinton and Weiner, whose laptop prompted the FBI to briefly reopen its investigation into the his handling of classified information in the days before the 2016 election. lost to Trump.
Trump then turns to the Iran dossier, according to the audio recording and impeachment transcript.
“I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said, ‘He wanted to attack Iran, so what…'” Trump said.
“These are the papers,” Trump continues, according to the audio file.
Trump offers new reason not to give classified material to investigators
“This was done by the military and given to me,” Trump continued, before noting that the document remained classified.
“Look as president, I could have declassified it,” Trump says. “I can’t now, you know, but this is still a secret.”
“Now we have a problem,” his employee replies.
“It’s not interesting,” Trump says.
While this is the last line included in the indictment, the audio recording obtained by CNN includes several additional lines of the conversation:
Trump: “It’s great. I mean, it’s like, look, her and me, and you probably almost don’t believe me, but now you do.”
Writer: “No, I believed you.”
Trump: “It’s amazing, right?”
Writer: “No, they never knew a war they didn’t want.”
Trump: “Hey, bring some, hey, bring some Coke, please.”
