XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.misc, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: or.politics, alt.atheism   
   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
   Trump Captured On Tape Talking About Classified Document He Kept After   
   Leaving The White House   
      
      
      
   Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021   
   meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a   
   classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple   
   sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified   
   everything.   
      
   The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material   
   after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with   
   the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would   
   like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability   
   post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.   
      
   CNN has not listened to the recording, but multiple sources described it.   
   One source said the relevant portion on the Iran document is about two   
   minutes long, and another source said the discussion is a small part of a   
   much longer meeting.   
      
    Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Justice Department   
   investigation into Trump, has focused on the meeting as part of the   
   criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of national security secrets.   
   Sources describe the recording as an “important” piece of evidence in a   
   possible case against Trump, who has repeatedly asserted he could retain   
   presidential records and “automatically” declassify documents.   
      
   Prosecutors have asked witnesses about the recording and the document   
   before a federal grand jury. The episode has generated enough interest for   
   investigators to have questioned Gen. Mark Milley, one of the highest-   
   ranking Trump-era national security officials, about the incident.   
      
   The July 2021 meeting was held at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New   
   Jersey, with two people working on the autobiography of Trump’s former   
   chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as aides employed by the former   
   president, including communications specialist Margo Martin. The   
   attendees, sources said, did not have security clearances that would allow   
   them access to classified information. Meadows didn’t attend the meeting,   
   sources said.   
      
   Meadows’ autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the same   
   meeting, during which Trump “recalls a four-page report typed up by   
   (Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Mark Milley   
   himself. It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying   
   massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more   
   than once during his presidency.”   
      
   The document Trump references was not produced by Milley, CNN was told.   
      
   Investigators have questioned Milley about the episode in recent months,   
   making him one of the highest-ranking national security officials from   
   Trump’s administration to meet with the special counsel’s team. Milley’s   
   spokesman Dave Butler declined to comment to CNN.   
      
    The revelation that the former president and commander-in-chief has been   
   captured on tape discussing a classified document could raise his legal   
   exposure as he continues his third bid for the White House.   
      
   Trump has denied any wrongdoing. CNN has reached out to a lawyer and   
   spokesman for the former president.   
      
   When asked at a CNN town hall this month if he showed classified documents   
   he kept after the presidency to anyone, Trump answered: “Not really. I   
   would have the right to. By the way, they were declassified after.”   
      
   A lawyer for Meadows declined to comment. A lawyer for Martin declined to   
   comment.   
      
   Smith’s investigation has shown signs of nearing its end, though it hasn’t   
   yet resulted in any criminal charges. A spokesman for the special   
   counsel’s office declined to comment for this story.   
      
    Trump was outraged at New Yorker story on Milley and Iran   
      
   The recording that’s now in the hands of prosecutors shows they are not   
   only looking at Trump’s actions regarding classified documents recovered   
   from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, but also at what happened at   
   Bedminster a year earlier.   
      
   The meeting in which Trump discussed the Iran document with others   
   happened shortly after The New Yorker published a story by Susan Glasser   
   detailing how, in the final days of Trump’s presidency, Milley instructed   
   the Joint Chiefs to ensure Trump issued no illegal orders and that he be   
   informed if there was any concern. The story infuriated Trump.   
      
      
    Glasser reported that in the months following the election, Milley   
   repeatedly argued against striking Iran and was concerned Trump “might set   
   in motion a full-scale conflict that was not justified.” Milley and others   
   talked Trump out of taking such a drastic action, according to the New   
   Yorker story.   
      
   On the recording and in response to the story, Trump brings up the   
   document, which he says came from Milley. Trump told those in the room   
   that if he could show it to people, it would undermine what Milley was   
   saying, the sources said. One source says Trump refers to the document as   
   if it is in front of him.   
      
   Several sources say the recording captures the sound of paper rustling, as   
   if Trump was waving the document around, though is not clear if it was the   
   actual Iran document. There’s also laughter in the room that’s captured on   
   the recording.   
      
      
    The meeting took place well before Trump’s team shipped 15 boxes of   
   presidential records and classified documents back to the National   
   Archives and Records Administration in January 2022 after months of back-   
   and-forth between his team and the records agency.   
      
   The Justice Department later obtained additional documents with classified   
   markings from Trump, seizing more than 100 during a search of Mar-a-Lago   
   last August. Trump’s legal team hired people to search other Trump   
   properties, including Bedminster, late last year.   
      
   Investigators from the special counsel’s office also have asked in their   
   document handling and obstruction investigation about other scenarios in   
   which Trump may have shown national security documents, such as maps, to   
   others, sources say. They’ve also asked several witnesses to share details   
   about Trump’s anger toward Milley.   
      
   During the summer of 2021, sources say multiple people were making   
   recordings of Trump as he held conversations with journalists and   
   biographers.   
      
      
    Trump’s different explanations on the declassified documents   
      
   Trump and his attorneys have given several different, often conflicting,   
   explanations for why Trump didn’t intentionally retain classified   
   materials in violation of federal law.    
      
   Initially, Trump allies argued he had a “standing declassification order”   
   so that documents removed from the Oval Office were immediately   
      
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