() — Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a meeting in the summer of 2021 in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges that he withheld a classified Pentagon document on a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told , undermining his argument that he declassified all the documents in his possession.
The recording indicates that Trump understood that he withheld classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest that he would like to share the information, but he is aware he cannot do so in his post-presidential capacity to declassify the documents, two of the sources said.
did not hear the recording, but several sources described it. One source said the relevant part on the Iran document lasts about two minutes, and another source said the discussion is a small part of a much longer meeting.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who leads the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump, focused on the meeting as part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of national security secrets.
The sources describe the recording as “important” evidence in a potential case against Trump, who repeatedly claimed he could preserve presidential records and “automatically” declassify documents.
Prosecutors questioned witnesses about the recording and the document before a federal grand jury. The episode generated enough interest that investigators have questioned General Mark Milley, one of the highest-ranking national security officials of the Trump era, 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 former Trump General Secretary Mark Meadows, as well as other advisers employed by the former president, including the communications specialist Margo Martin. The attendees, according to the sources, did not have security clearances that would allow them to access classified information. Meadows did not attend the meeting, the sources said.
Meadows’ autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the same meeting, during which Trump “remembers a four-page report written by himself—former chairman of Trump’s Joint Chiefs of Staff—Mark Milley. It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying vast numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency.”
The document Trump is referencing was not produced by Milley, was told.
Investigators have questioned Milley about the episode in recent months, making him one of the highest-ranking national security officials from the Trump administration to meet with the special counsel’s team. Milley’s spokesman, Dave Butler, declined to comment to .
The revelation that the former president and commander-in-chief were caught on tape discussing a classified document could heighten his legal exposure as he makes his third run for the White House.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing. has contacted a lawyer and spokesperson for the former president.
A Trump campaign spokesman said the “leaks” are intended to “stoke tensions” around Trump.
“The Department of Justice’s continued interference in the presidential election is shameful and this meritless investigation should stop wasting American taxpayers’ money on Democratic political targets,” the spokesperson added.
Asked on a forum this month if he showed anyone the classified documents he kept after the presidency, Trump replied: “Not really. I would have a right to. By the way, they were declassified afterward.”
An attorney for Meadows declined to comment. An attorney for Martin declined to comment.
Smith’s investigation has shown signs of drawing to a close, although it has not yet resulted in any criminal charges. A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment for this story.
In this February 2020 photo, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley talks with President Donald Trump after delivering the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Credit: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images/File)
Trump was outraged by The New Yorker’s report on Milley and Iran
The recording now in the hands of prosecutors shows that they are looking not only at Trump’s actions in relation to classified documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, but also at what happened in Bedminster a year earlier.
The meeting where Trump discussed the Iran document with others came shortly after The New Yorker published a report by Susan Glasser detailing how, in the final days of Trump’s presidency, Milley instructed the Joint Chiefs to ensure Trump did not issue illegal orders and to be informed if there were any concerns. . The story angered Trump.
Glasser reported that in the months after the election, Milley repeatedly argued against hitting Iran and worried that Trump “could set off a large-scale conflict that was not justified.” Milley and others convinced Trump not to take such drastic action, according to The New Yorker article.
In the recording and in response to the report, 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, he would undermine what Milley was saying, according to the sources. A source claims that Trump refers to the document as if it were in front of him.
Multiple sources say the recording captures the sound of rustling paper, as if Trump was waving the document, though it is unclear if this was the actual document on Iran. There is also laughter in the room that is captured in the recording
The meeting happened long before Trump’s team returned 15 boxes of presidential records and classified documents to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in January 2022, after months of back and forth between your team and the record agency.
The Justice Department later obtained additional documents with classification marks in Trump’s possession, seizing more than 100 during a search at Mar-a-Lago last August. Trump’s legal team hired several people to search other Trump properties, including Bedminster, late last year.
Investigators with the special counsel’s office also probed in their document handling and obstruction investigation into other scenarios in which Trump might have shown national security documents — such as maps — to others, the sources say. They also asked several witnesses to share details about Trump’s anger at 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 for the declassified documents
Trump and his lawyers have given several different, often conflicting, explanations for why Trump unintentionally withheld classified material in violation of federal law.
Initially, Trump’s allies argued that he had a “permanent declassification order” so that documents removed from the Oval Office were immediately declassified. A few weeks later, Trump told Fox News that he could declassify things “just by thinking about it.”
Earlier this year, Trump’s legal team told Congress that the classified material was unknowingly packaged at the end of the administration. More recently, Trump told on a forum that the materials were “automatically declassified” when he took them.
However, there is no indication that Trump followed the declassification process required by law, and his lawyers have so far avoided saying in court whether Trump declassified the records in his possession.
— Kristen Holmes and Sara Murray contributed to this reporting.
