Prosecutors’ 49-page indictment outlined two instances in which Trump disclosed sensitive papers in unsecured environments, post-presidency, to individuals who lacked the necessary security clearances required to view any classified information. The second instance described in the indictment was an August or September 2021 meeting where Trump showed an unnamed representative of his political action committee a classified map of “Country B,” and expressed to the individual that he shouldn’t be sharing the map.
The audio recording is quoted in the indictment, which describes a meeting Trump held at his Bedminster golf club in July 2021 with two staffers, as well as the publisher and writer of an upcoming book. People familiar with the matter have said the book was a forthcoming memoir by Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Meadows described the scene in his book, “The Chief’s Chief,” indicating that Trump described a four-page document he claimed was an invasion plan for Iran that he said was written by the Defense Department and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At that time, Milley was a frequent target of Trump’s ire, and the former president was hoping to push back against articles and books in which Milley was described as having had to restrain Trump from irresponsible military action in Iran.
Former military officials previously told The Post that Milley never recommended attacking Iran. But it was customary for the Pentagon to prepare memos outlining a variety of military options to respond to a foreign adversary, people familiar with Milley’s briefings to the president said. The Pentagon did have a memo for a military attack on Iran as one conceivable option, but it was not written by Milley, these people said.
During the nearly two-minute recording, Trump describes a document as “highly confidential” before saying “this is secret information.” At one point he says, “You probably didn’t believe me, but now you believe me. It’s incredible.”
The audio also runs counter to what Trump told Fox News anchor Bret Baier in an interview that aired last week. In the interview, Trump denied referring to an actual document during the conversation at Bedminster; rather, he said he was discussing “newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”
Judge Aileen M. Cannon has scheduled the first pretrial conference in the case for July 14.
By Jacqueline Alemany
Jacqueline Alemany is a Congressional Investigations reporter for The Washington Post. Previously, she was the author of The Early 202, The Post's flagship early morning newsletter featuring news critical to the nation’s many power centers. Alemany is also an on-air contributor to NBC News and MSNBC.
