Donald Trump Reportedly Caught on Tape Talking About Keeping Classified Document After Leaving White House
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Prosecutors have reportedly accessed a July 2021 recording of the former president acknowledging that he retained a classified Pentagon document
Prosecutors investigating Donald Trump's handling of classified documents have reportedly accessed a July 2021 recording of the former president acknowledging that he retained a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran.
CNN cites multiple sources who allege that the recording, which was made roughly six months after Trump left the White House, captures the former president suggesting he would like to share the information found in the classified documents but is aware that his ability to declassify records after leaving the White House is limited.
RELATED: A Timeline of the DOJ's Investigation into How Donald Trump Has Handled Classified Documents
The outlet further reports that prosecutors have questioned witnesses — including Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Trump administration — about the recording and the classified document before a federal grand jury.
According to an autobiography by Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Milley was the one who typed the classified document, which Meadows writes was a "four-page report" that "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.”
A spokesperson for Trump has called the investigation into classified documents "shameful" and "meritless," alleging that it is "continued interference in the presidential election," despite that the investigation began before Trump announced his current, and third, run for the White House.
The former president's Mar-a-Lago home was searched by federal agents last August, with the warrant used by the FBI to search the property revealing that agents were investigating Trump for removal or destruction of records, obstruction of an investigation and for potentially violating the Espionage Act.
According to a property receipt that was unsealed after the search, agents retrieved 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked "top secret" that are only meant to be viewed at secure government facilities, during the search.
The search of Mar-a-Lago came after numerous attempts by the federal government to track down missing documents from Trump's time in office.
The New York Times reported last September that the former president was warned about his handling of secret materials back in 2021 by a former White House attorney but Trump has repeatedly claimed that any documents stored at Mar-a-Lago had been declassified by him.
It's unclear, however, if he undertook any formal process to declassify them. The claim has also been refuted by more than a dozen former Trump administration officials.
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The classified documents investigation is one of many legal issues for Trump, who is currently running another presidential campaign.
In March, Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to answer to criminal charges when he appeared in a Manhattan courtroom to plead not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The felony charges resulted from an investigation into alleged hush money payments made to two women, including adult film star Stormy Daniels, while he was a presidential candidate in 2016.
Then in May, a jury held Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming former Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in the late '90s.
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