Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Trump heard on CNN tape discussing military secrets at golf club

Ex-president is heard discussing a Pentagon paper detailing plans to attack Iran with people who did not have security clearances



An audio clip has emerged of Donald Trump discussing secret documents that he had not declassified at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club in July 2021, providing new evidence that the former president knew of proper declassification procedures.

The recording, obtained by CNN, includes new details from a conversation that is a critical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information. It includes a moment when Trump seems to indicate he was holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran.

The episode is one of two referenced in the indictment where prosecutors allege that Trump showed classified information to others who did not have security clearances, CNN reported.

In the conversation, Trump is talking with people helping his former chief of staff Mark Meadows write a book. His aide, Margo Martin, regularly taped conversations with authors to ensure they accurately recounted his remarks.

According to the recording aired on CNN, Trump refers to the document and its classified status.

“These are the papers,” Trump says in the audio recording, while he’s discussing the Pentagon attack plans, a quote that was not included in the indictment.

“This was done by the military and given to me,” Trump continues, before noting that the document remained classified. “See as president I could have declassified it,” he says. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

The audio recording obtained by CNN included more lines from the conversation:

Trump: “It’s so cool. I mean, it’s so, look, her and I, and you probably almost didn’t believe me, but now you believe me.”

Writer: “No, I believed you.”

Trump: “It’s incredible, right?”

Writer: “No, they never met a war they didn’t want.”

Trump: “Hey, bring some, uh, bring some Cokes in please.”

The July 2021 meeting that was recorded came shortly after Trump was incensed about news reports that Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had urged him not to attack Iran in the final weeks of his presidency.

Trump believed that the document outlining the report to attack Iran would undercut Milley’s reported assertions, though the report was actually written earlier in the Trump administration when Joseph Dunford was chairman of the joint chiefs, a person familiar with the document said.

Trump pleaded not guilty earlier this month to 37 counts related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/26/donald-trump-classified-documents-recording-pentagon-iran



'This is secret information’: Hear exclusive audio of Trump discussing classified documents

New CNN audio reveals former President Donald Trump discussing classified documents with a journalist and a staffer. CNN’s Anderson Cooper discusses with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Paula Reid. #CNN

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

'Devastating': Legal expert says Trump tape is 'gold' for Jack Smith



Following CNN's release of audio footage of former President Donald Trump bragging about holding highly classified military intelligence about Iran attack plans to staffers and patrons of his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig discussed the key implications on CNN on Monday.

This, he argued, is close to the best kind of evidence special counsel Jack Smith could possibly have for the Espionage Act charges against the former president.

"It is stunning to actually hear it," said anchor Kaitlan Collins. "We knew what he said, but to hear the audio, to hear the tone, to hear the conversation, the laughter in there — I mean, I'm not a prosecutor. I imagine this is a prosecutor's dream."

"Exactly right," agreed Honig. "This is a devastating tape. This is why prosecutors love tapes so much. This is why tapes are gold to prosecutors. I used to have cases where the first question was, do you have tapes? If you do, that changes everything."

Last week, Trump sat for an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, in which he claimed that most of the documents he was being charged for were in fact innocent magazine and newspaper clippings — a claim very much at odds with what he stated on the tape.

"We can see the difference between the black and white transcript, where the words are fairly incriminating," added Honig. "How it comes to life, though. You hear the tone. You hear who's in the room. You hear that he means it. You hear that he's actually shuffling papers. And this, to me, is the most important piece of evidence that we know of in this case."

Former prosecutor tells Maddow how newly released tape will be used during Trump's trial



MSNBC's Rachel Maddow began her Monday show by doing her own dramatic reading of Donald Trump's audio tape that was revealed by CNN. After listening to the tape, she explained that so much is left out in transcripts, like the cadence and inflection that makes it clear that Trump is handing a classified document to someone.

"I mean, let's just draw down on the specifics of this for a second. In Jack Smith bringing charges against Donald Trump, the sort of crux of the case, right?" said Maddow. "Is that the prosecution has to be able to prove that Trump had classified documents in his possession after he left the presidency, right? That's the illegal activity alleged in the indictment. And here in this part of the tape is Donald Trump saying he had possession of classified information after leaving the presidency."

Former federal prosecutor Barb McQuade, who now teaches law at the University of Michigan, joined the conversation saying she had two reactions to what she heard.

"One, as a former prosecutor, it makes my hair stand on end a little bit to see this in the public domain," she said. "Prosecutors try to keep this stuff safeguarded so you can't have witness tampering and crowdsourcing of defenses. Now people can because this is in the public domain. But as a matter of evidence, this is really powerful evidence. We had seen some verbatim quotes from this recording that was in the indictment, but to hear the whole thing play out, I think, is incredible evidence. And at trial, it will not just be this recording that's played in a vacuum. They will have to authenticate this document, this recording, with someone who was there. So, whether it is the biographer or the publisher or one of the two staffers, one or more of them will have to be there."

The question she expects them to be asked is if they looked at the documents because it sounds as if he is handing them to folks.

"So, I think it proves a couple of things," McQuade continued. "One as you said, his knowledge and intent, which is important here about that he is willfully violating the law, and the other is the incredible recklessness with which he is treating our national secrets. It is a very powerful piece of evidence."

McQuade ended the interview by saying, "Let's have some cokes," a reference to the bizarre final line in the tapes.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Listen: Leaked audio of Trump bragging about holding classified info about Iran attack planning



On Monday, CNN obtained the audio of former President Donald Trump boasting to patrons of his Bedminster golf club that he was in possession of highly classified national defense information.

In addition to Trump admitting he didn't have the power to declassify the documents, he casually laughed and joked about Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, and he could be heard waving around a sheet of paper, suggesting the document was actually there on the scene — despite his claims in his own defense that he didn't actually have it.

"'These are the papers,' Trump says in the audio recording, while he’s discussing the Pentagon attack plans, a quote that was not included in the indictment," reported Jeremy Herb. "In the two-minute audio recording, Trump and his aides also joke about Hillary Clinton’s emails after the former president says that the document was 'secret information,'" said the report. "'Hillary would print that out all the time, you know. Her private emails,' Trump’s staffer said. 'No, she’d send it to Anthony Weiner,' Trump responded, referring to the former Democratic congressman, prompting laughter in the room."

Trump was fully aware that he was being recorded by his own staffers as all this was going on.

"The audio recording comes from a July 2021 interview Trump gave at his Bedminster resort for people working on the memoir of Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff. The special counsel’s indictment alleges that those in attendance – a writer, publisher and two of Trump’s staff members – were shown classified information about the plan of attack on Iran," said the report. "The episode is one of two referenced in the indictment where prosecutors allege that Trump showed classified information to others who did not have security clearances."

Trump faces 37 federal charges for hoarding classified information at his Mar-a-Lago country club in South Florida. Prosecutors allege that he had his body man, Walt Nauta, move around the boxes of documents to various unsecured areas to prevent federal authorities and even his own lawyers from knowing he had them.

Listen to audio below:

George Conway: 'Sociopathic criminal' Trump committed 'multiple felonies' on tape



Following CNN's exclusive airing of audio of former President Donald Trump boasting about his improper possession of highly classified military documents to staffers and patrons of his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, conservative attorney George Conway laid out the seriousness of his actions on "Anderson Cooper 360."

"How damning is this for the former president, do you think?" asked Cooper.

"Well, the special counsel already had Trump dead to rights because we knew this tape existed in some form. But to actually hear a former President of the United States committing a felony, probably multiple felonies, on audiotape while laughing about it is something I just — I think it's just stunning," said Conway, a longtime critic of the former president. "And I just don't see how, I mean, I can understand exactly why Trump's legal advisers think that this really changes the complexion of the case because ... I don't know how you can explain that in front of a jury."

The Iran battle plans Trump was waving around, Conway continued, are "by definition one of the most confidential things you could probably have, which is, you know, an off-the-shelf plan to attack a potential enemy of the United States of America. It's very, very valuable top-secret information. It's something the Iranians would probably pay tens of millions of dollars for. It's something that if it ever got into the wrong hands, it could lead to the deaths of American servicemen, if the Iranians were able to prepare for an attack and they knew what the attack was going to be, if they knew what the options laid out in the Pentagon document were. And the fact that he is just so absolutely cavalier, I mean, it's just sociopathic. This man has no respect for rules, no respect for the lives of other human beings, no respect for the country, no respect for the Constitution, no respect for his duties. He is a sociopathic criminal, and this is just another nail in the coffin of — it's just another thing that's going to put him away."

"I just played the video of the former president last week to Bret Baier, downplaying them, calling them articles and newspaper stories," said Cooper.

"He's lying," said Conway flatly. "I once wrote a semi-humorous piece in The Washington Post when this first came out last year about cookies. He's saying he doesn't have the cookie jar. You put the cookies there. The jar is mine. The cookies are mine. The story changes from moment to moment to moment. It's like the narcissist's prayer, which is, if I did it, I didn't do it. if I did it, you made me do it. It was okay anyway. The endless lying. And he just — it's like an onion. You peel his lies and get more lies."

AFP



Nixon never said anything ‘as clearly illegal’ as Trump in new audio: Watergate historian



A Watergate historian and journalist compared the just-released audio of Donald Trump talking about classified documents with people who did not have a security clearance, to the secret tapes former president Richard Nixon made during his more than five years in the White House.

Garrett Graff, a former Politico editor and Washingtonian editor-in-chief is also the author of the 2022 book, Watergate: A New History.

“Speaking as a Watergate historian,” Graff said Monday night, “there’s nowhere on thousands of hours of Nixon tapes where Nixon makes any comment as clear, as clearly illegal, and as clearly self-aware as this Trump tape.”

Trump says, “these are bad sick people,” in the tape (below), obtained and published by CNN, which explains the former president’s staffer “claims there had been a ‘coup’ against Trump.”

“Like when Milley is talking about, ‘Oh you’re going to try to do a coup.’ No, they were trying to do that before you even were sworn in,” the staffer says in the audio.

“He said that I wanted to attack Iran, Isn’t it amazing?” Trump says, “as the sound of papers shuffling can be heard,” CNN adds.

“I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this – this is off the record but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”

Further into the recording, Trump says, “See as president I could have declassified it.”

“Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” Trump continues.

“Now we have a problem,” the staffer says.

“Isn’t that interesting,” Trump says.

“It’s so cool. I mean, it’s so, look, her and I, and you probably almost didn’t believe me, but now you believe me.”

Graff also says the audio is “incredibly damning” to listen to. “Somehow so much worst listening than even reading” the transcript.

Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall calls the audio “an amazing recording,” and says Trump “ticks off every link in the chain of criminality and full awareness of each link in the chain.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1673487276708331521

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2023/06/on-thousands-of-hours-of-tapes-nixon-never-said-anything-as-clearly-illegal-as-trump-in-new-audio-watergate-historian/

[Rick Plant]

'Illegal and dangerous': Trump's former defense sec says he's not telling truth about Iran docs on tape

Former President Donald Trump's purported audio tape on which he bragged about improperly possessing high-level defense information to Bedminster patrons in 2021 was revealed by CNN on Monday evening — revealing damning new details that special counsel Jack Smith had not made public previously.

Speaking to CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, Trump's former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper outlined how serious a breach of national security Trump's behavior was — and beyond that, how dishonestly he was framing the documents he shared, like his claims that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley was the driving force behind a plan to invade Iran.

"Secretary Esper ... given this breaking news and the stunning audio, I wonder what it's like for you to hear your former boss, former commander-in-chief, talking about what we are told are sensitive military documents in this matter?" asked Collins.

"It's stunning to hear it," said Esper, who has himself for years been revealing ugly secrets of what he saw in the Trump administration. "It sounds familiar in some ways. I talk a lot about these instances in my memoir, where I categorize how every few months or so we would come back to this issue about Iran and what to do. I can say Mark Milley worked for me for nearly 18 months, which was most of Trump's tenure that we were together. He never advocated for attacking Iran. If anything, Trevor, Milley, and I were the reluctant warriors urging caution, urging restraint. So, that kind of is what strikes me first. But secondly, it's the nonchalant nature of sharing those documents, is illegal and dangerous. That concerns me as well, that such things were kept loosely around Mar-a-Lago."

"He told Fox, there was no document but referenced newspaper stories, magazine clippings," said Collins. "But it sure doesn't sound like he's talking about just a magazine article there. Is it clear to you? Does it sound to you that he is holding a classified document?"

"Well, it sounds like he's holding something and showing something," said Esper. "I don't know what it was. I think earlier it was reported some time ago that it was a four-page document, which would not have been what DOD typically prepared. What we usually prepare was a one-pager that included targeting options and escalatory measures, things like that. I outlined this in my memoir for everybody. Something like that would be a document that would generate that wow effect, if you were, by people who are unfamiliar with these types of things or classified material."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Even as DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith continues to close in on Donald Trump from all sides, Trump is still attempting to use organized crime tactics to fight back. The trouble for Trump: it’s way too late for that to work, and he’s way too far gone to understand how it works anyway.

For instance, earlier today Trump made a social media post that began like this: “COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO THE DERRANGED, TRUMP HATING JACK SMITH, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS FRIENDS, THAT AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, I COME UNDER THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT…”

Trump is obviously attempting to incite his supporters to seek out and harass Jack Smith’s family members like he's done to others in the past. But that’s the thing: it’s too obvious. It’s ham fisted. It’s numbskulled. It won’t actually get Trump anywhere. And it could ultimately end up leading to Trump getting hit with additional criminal charges for incitement.

We still don’t know who leaked this bombshell recording of Donald Trump to the media, but it does make clear that Trump has a nearly 100% chance of being convicted at trial. Trump keeps frantically insisting that Jack Smith leaked the recording – which we know didn’t happen. So did Trump illegally leak it, or did some third party get ahold of it and leak it?

Either way, Trump is now going completely out of his mind over it. He posted this to social media tonight: “Why did Deranged Jack Smith and the DOJ/FBI leak a tape to Fake News CNN, phony spin and all? Will they be prosecuted for this illegal act? Pure SCUM!”

So where do we even begin with this? Trump is now demanding that Jack Smith be prosecuted for leaking this tape, which is absurd given that Smith obviously isn’t the one who leaked it. This sure sounds like it could be a matter of projection. If Trump is the one who leaked the recording, then he did it in violation of a court order, meaning he could get hauled in by the magistrate judge for contempt of court. Stay tuned.


'Acting like a Mafia boss': Trump appears to threaten Jack Smith's family in latest rant



Donald Trump's latest rant against special counsel Jack Smith didn't stop at attacking him — it appeared to go after his family and friends as well, which raises the question of whether he made criminal threats.

Many legal experts appear to think he didn't — but that he stepped very close to the line, reported the Huffington Post.

“COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO THE DERANGED, TRUMP HATING JACK SMITH, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS FRIENDS, THAT AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, I COME UNDER THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, AS AFFIRMED BY THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, NOT BY THIS PSYCHOS’ FANTASY OF THE NEVER USED BEFORE ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

"'Smells of desperation,' said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University history professor and an expert on authoritarianism. 'Once again, Trump is acting like a Mafia boss and also stringing as many propaganda slogans together as possible,'" wrote S.V. Dáte. "'Trump is encouraging his followers, who we know have included the violent insurrectionists responsible for Jan. 6, to target the family and friends of Jack Smith,' said Norm Eisen, a lawyer who served in Barack Obama’s White House. 'It is profoundly concerning.'"

"Threatening federal law enforcement officers doing their jobs is a crime punishable by years in prison, although it is unclear whether Trump’s pattern of attacks, which go back now nearly a year and a half, could be successfully prosecuted," noted the report. "A Supreme Court decision released Tuesday requires prosecutors to prove that a person making a statement knows that doing so would be considered a threat, not merely that a reasonable person would consider it a threat."

Trump is being prosecuted under the Espionage Act for hoarding boxes full of highly classified national defense information at Mar-a-Lago, and allegedly ordering aides to move the boxes around so as to hide them from federal authorities and even from his own lawyers.

Read More Here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-jack-smith-family-attacks_n_649b57ace4b0cd6f7df0aea3




Trump's Bedminster club plays key role in criminal probe: report

Mar-a-Lago has made headlines in recent months as the focus of a Department of Justice investigation over Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents.

Now Bedminster is finally getting its due.

The audio recording of a 2021 interview from the former president’s New Jersey golf club shows that investigators have had eyes on Bedminster all along, The New York Times reports.

The audio recording – first obtained by CNN – in which Trump is heard describing a plan to attack Iran as “highly confidential,” appears to undercut the former president’s previous claim that the documents in question contained just news clippings.

Alan Feuer, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan write for The Times: “That audio recording, which was published on Monday by The New York Times, was the latest piece of evidence placing Bedminster on an almost equal footing with Mar-a-Lago as a key location in the case being pursued against Mr. Trump by the special counsel Jack Smith. Previously unreported details of the investigation show that prosecutors working for Mr. Smith have subpoenaed surveillance footage from Bedminster, much like they did from Mar-a-Lago, and fought a pitched battle with Mr. Trump’s lawyers late last year over how best to search the New Jersey property.”

Investigators last summer had sought to conduct a search of the Bedminster property over concerns the former president had stashed them there, The Times reports, citing two sources briefed on the matter, but the investigators at the time didn’t have enough evidence to demonstrate probably cause to a judge.

Trump purchased the Bedminster property in 2002 and uses it as a summer getaway and season retreat, according to the report.

Read the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/us/politics/trump-investigation-bedminster.html

[Rick Plant]

Exclusive: Rudy Giuliani interviewed in special counsel’s 2020 election interference probe



CNN — Former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has been interviewed by federal investigators as part of the special counsel’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, multiple sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.

The meeting between Giuliani, his attorney Robert Costello, and investigators took place in recent weeks. The sources declined to say what investigators’ questions focused on during the meeting, which has not been previously reported.

Special counsel Jack Smith has not announced any charges stemming from his investigation into efforts to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election, but prosecutors appear to be nearing charging decisions, sources familiar with the case have said.

The interview with Giuliani comes amid a flurry of activity in the probe, which is examining a plan from Trump and his allies to put forth fake electors as well as potential financial crimes related to post-election fundraising. Investigators have called a steady stream of witnesses before a federal grand jury in recent weeks and have pressed attorneys to quickly bring in other witnesses for interviews, sources told CNN.

Sources say that some of the grand jury questioning has centered on the actions of top lawyers around Trump, including Giuliani, with investigators seeking information about their baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

Ted Goodman, a Giuliani political adviser, told CNN that “the appearance was entirely voluntary and conducted in a professional manner.”

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment to CNN.

The special counsel’s office has long shown interest in several members of Trump’s post-election legal team, including Giuliani, Sidney Powell and John Eastman, as well as former Justice Department appointee Jeffrey Clark, who tried to help Trump’s push to use the department to overturn the election.

Several rounds of federal subpoenas have sought the communications of more than a dozen attorneys – including Giuliani, Powell, Eastman and Clark – because of how central some lawyers were to Trump’s post-election response.

At least some of the lawyers’ phones were seized by the FBI last year. The Justice Department filtered out privileged communications of Eastman and Clark and others to deliver the lawyers’ records to investigators, according to now-public court proceedings.

Trump’s White House counsel and then-Vice President Mike Pence’s then-top counsel also were compelled to testify despite their claims of attorney-client privilege.

CNN previously reported that Giuliani was subpoenaed late last year to turn over records to a federal grand jury as part of an investigation into the former president’s fundraising following the 2020 election.

The subpoena requested documents from Giuliani about payments he received around the 2020 election, when Giuliani filed numerous lawsuits on Trump’s behalf contesting the election results, a source told CNN.

In addition, Giuliani played a key role in overseeing the fake electors plot across seven battleground states, part of an effort to block the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/27/politics/rudy-giuliani-special-counsel-meeting/index.html



Prosecutor calls Trump tape 'best possible evidence'

Newly released audio tape features Trump discussing classified documents, including plans to attack Iran, and joking about Hillary Clinton's emails. Former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann emphasizes the significance of the audio tape in which Trump admits to the crime, contradicting his claims of not possessing any documents. Additionally, Weissmann weighs in on Judge Cannon's decision to reject the special counsel's request to keep four potential witnesses secret, raising questions about witness protection and the extent of transparency in the case.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Fox News host suggests Trump may have leaked audio in classified documents case

Fox News host Steve Doocy suggested former President Trump may have been behind the leak of an audio recording showing Trump talking about his handling of classified documents.

“You know what? If Trump thinks it’s an exoneration of him, perhaps somebody on his side actually did the leaking to CNN and Maggie Haberman,” Doocy said Tuesday morning.

“That makes sense,” co-host Brian Kilmeade chimed in.

“It does, actually,” Doocy said. “He’s admitting he’s got classified documents.”

On the audio, published first by CNN, Trump is heard discussing classified documents and his disagreements on military policy toward Iran with America’s top general during his time in the White House.

“He said that I wanted to attack Iran, isn’t it amazing?” Trump says on the recording, referring to Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley.

“I have a big pile of papers; this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this — this is off-the-record, but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”

Trump was federally indicted earlier this month in connection to his handling of classified documents. He said Monday night the audio is “actually an exoneration” and accused the Department of Justice of leaking the recording.

“The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and ‘spun’ a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4069757-fox-news-host-suggests-trump-may-have-leaked-audio-in-classified-documents-case/



Trump caught on tape discussing sensitive documents

A leaked audio recording suggests that the former president referred to a specific document during a meeting, contradicting his recent claims that it was just news clippings. The recording reveals him handling a "big pile of papers" and describing them as "highly confidential, secret information." Fmr. U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg joins Morning Joe to discuss how the recording adds fuel to the ongoing investigations and political debates surrounding the former president.

Watch:

BOMBSHELL Tape Incriminating Trump RELEASED to the Public

CNN has acquired and published the now-infamous 2021 tape of Donald Trump supposedly brandishing a highly classified document in the presence of guests without security clearance. After listening to the tape himself, Harry explains how it will serve as a key piece of evidence in the eventual trial.

TALKING FEDS PODCAST is a roundtable discussion that brings together prominent former government officials, journalists, and special guests for a dynamic and in-depth analysis of the most pressing questions in law and politics.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Revealed: Trump exposed military secrets out of rage



The ongoing mystery behind former President Donald Trump's stash of highly classified military secrets at Mar-a-Lago has been why he insisted on exposing confidential information. He has repeatedly claimed the documents are "his" and he has a right to possess them — but has never explained exactly what he wanted with them.

The shocking tape obtained by CNN that shows him boasting to patrons of his Bedminster golf club about possessing an Iranian battle plan offers the answer, argued Susan Glasser for The New Yorker: he wanted to discredit Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley, after months of behind-the-scenes drama that left the former president enraged at Milley's refusal to enable his worst impulses.

"The damning evidence against Trump would not exist if not for his rift with Mark Milley, a remarkable feud between the Commander-in-Chief and the nation’s top general that had been a secret backdrop to the public drama that played out after the 2020 election," wrote Glasser. "At the time the tape was made, in the summer of 2021, Trump was apoplectic that Milley’s fears about him were becoming public. Two recently published books — one by the journalists Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker of the Post, and the other by Michael Bender, then of the Wall Street Journal — had reported new details about Milley’s efforts, including regular 'land the plane' phone calls with Meadows, the White House chief of staff, to prevent Trump from drawing the military into his quest to overturn the 2020 election."

According to the report, "Milley was even quoted fretting about Trump and his supporters staging a 'Reichstag moment' — a fear that seemed eerily prescient on January 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, seeking to block congressional certification of Trump’s defeat. Trump, in turn, publicly denounced Milley and said that he had only picked him as chairman in 2018 to spite James Mattis, his soon-to-quit Defense Secretary at the time."

All of this is laid bare in Trump's own words on the tape, explicitly trying to claim the document proves Milley was the one who planned to invade Iran rather than him, as Milley had also feared he might do in his final weeks in office. Sources closer to Milley have pushed back, claiming Milley was in fact trying to restrain the former president from such an attack.

For his part, Trump has denied the thing he was holding on the tape was a classified document, claiming he was simply in possession of other innocent documents like golf course "building plans."

AFP



Top Trump aide is identified as person he showed classified map

A top adviser to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign has been identified as a key figure in the indictment against him for illegally storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home, ABC News reported Wednesday.

Susie Wiles isn’t named in special counsel Jack Smith's indictment but is referred to as a “PAC representative” to whom Trump is accused of showing a classified map, sources told the news outlet.

He is said to have shown her the map while discussing a military operation that Trump said “was not going well,” before adding that he “should not be showing the map” and warning her “not to get too close,” ABC reported.

Wiles, who ran Ron DeSantis’ two campaigns for governor, also led Trump’s Florida operation in 2016 and later became CEO to Trump’s Save America Political Action Committee, ABC reported.

Wiles, who ran Ron DeSantis’ two campaigns for governor, also led Trump’s Florida operation in 2016 and later became CEO to Trump’s Save America Political Action Committee, ABC reported.

She is one of a small group that's heading his 2024 presidential campaign and is considered one of his most trusted confidantes, ABC reported.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 felony counts in the indictment.

AFP



Trump asked his lawyers about getting back 'my boxes' even on cusp of indictment

Donald Trump continued asking his attorneys for "my boxes" and "my documents" back from the DOJ, even as they warned him he was about to be indicted, according to an exclusive news report.

Trump, who is now facing felony criminal charges in connection with his alleged hoarding of confidential materials, was steadfast in his belief that they were his documents to do with as he wishes, according to the Rolling Stone's new report.

"Last month, Donald Trump’s lawyers told him he was on the cusp of a federal indictment in the classified documents case. But the former president still wanted 'my documents' and 'my boxes' back, asking some of his lawyers if they could get them from the federal government, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter and two other people briefed on it," the outlet wrote. "It’s one of many such conversations Trump has had over the past few months, the sources say. In these conversations, Trump also claimed it was 'illegal' that he could no longer have the documents seized in the Mar-a-Lago raid. Those materials, Trump insisted, belonged to 'me.' Trump has also asked if there are any other possible legal maneuvers or court filings they could try to accomplish this that they hadn’t thought of yet."

The report continues:

"For much of his post-presidency, Trump has incorrectly insisted to various aides and confidants that the highly classified documents he continued to hoard were 'mine.' In some of these conversations, according to the source with knowledge of the matter, Trump has also mentioned that he’ll get the documents back in 2025 — because he predicts he’ll be president again, and therefore regain unfettered access to the government’s most sensitive secrets."

Read More Here: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-indictment-documents-maralago-lawyers-1234780389/