Former President Donald Trump reportedly spoke in the summer of 2021 about a classified document in his possession about a potential attack on Iran, according to a recording obtained by federal prosecutors.
Sources told CNN that the recently obtained recording indicates that the former president knew he possessed classified documents. His possession of the documents has been a controversial topic since August 2022, when the FBI raided Trump's home and seized over 100 classified documents. Since January 2022, the government has recovered more than 300 files connected to Trump with classification markings ranging from "CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET information."
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Trump has adamantly condemned the raid of his home and denied any wrongdoing. At one point, he claimed he declassified the documents in his head, and therefore they were not a national security threat.
On the recording, he suggested he would like to share the information in the document describing the Iran attack but that he's "aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records," according to the CNN report.
The recording stems from a meeting the former president held in July 2021 at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, with two people working on the autobiography of Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, as well as aides of Trump. The attendees would not have had a security clearance that allowed access to the classified information mentioned in the document, the sources said. Meadow was not in attendance.
The Iran document is also referenced in the autobiography.
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 autobiography stated, per CNN.
Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs chairman, has been questioned by federal investigators, marking him as one of the Trump administration's highest-ranking national security officials to be consulted for the special counsel investigation led by Jack Smith for the Justice Department.
A source said the former president referred to the document as if it was in front of him, and paper rustling indicates he was waving something around. It is unclear if it is the document in question.
A spokesperson for Trump said "leaks" from "radical partisans" are "designed to inflame tensions and continue the media’s harassment of President Trump and his supporters."
"It’s just more proof that when it comes to President Trump, there are absolutely no depths to which they will not sink as they pursue their witch hunts. The DOJ’s continued interference in the presidential election is shameful and this meritless investigation should cease wasting the American taxpayer’s money on Democrat political objectives," the spokesperson said to the Washington Examiner.
Sources said the 2021 recording will be a key component to special counsel Jack Smith's Justice Department investigation of the classified documents about Trump. Smith is reportedly "wrapping up" his investigation that began late last year as the department moves toward possibly indicting the former president.
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Recent evidence shows the former president knew the documents were classified. The National Archives and Records Administration reportedly told Trump of its plans to deliver 16 records to Smith detailing his understanding of the proper declassification procedure.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Justice Department for comment.