Former President Donald Trump was caught on tape bragging in the summer of 2021 about having a pile of “amazing” top secret military documents — including a Pentagon “plan of attack” on another country, federal prosecutors have charged.
Trump’s admission that he kept the “highly confidential” files from his time in office was among the trove of details laid bare in the sweeping 37-count indictment against the 76-year-old that was unsealed Friday.
The 45th president allegedly showed off the “secret” docs when he sat down for a recorded interview for an autobiography of ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at Trump’s Bedminster Club in New Jersey on July 21, 2021.
“Look what I found, this was [the Senior Military Official’s] plan of attack, read it and just show… it’s interesting,” Trump allegedly said at the top of the sit down interview.
A transcript of the exchange was included in the indictment. The country and senior military official referenced were not identified in the court documents, but CNN has reported the country is Iran and the official is Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Former President Donald Trump in 2021 can be heard on tape admitting to having kept and not declassified “secret” military documents. AFP via Getty ImagesTrump: Well, with [the Senior Military Official] – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack [Country A]. Isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me with this — this is off the record, but — they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.
Writer: Wow.
Trump: We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff – pages long, look.
Staffer: Mm.
Trump: Wait a minute, let’s see here.
Staffer: [Laughter] Yeah.
Trump: I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know.
Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted the former president on seven counts as part of his investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House. AP
It’s not clear whether any of the charges stem from the recorded July 2021 meeting. APStaffer: Mm-hm.
Trump: Except it is like, highly confidential.
Staffer: Yeah [Laughter].
Trump: Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack, and –
Trump: By the way. Isn’t that incredible?
Staffer: Yeah.
Trump: I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said, “he wanted to attack [Country A], and what …”
Staffer: You did.
Trump: This was done by the military and given to me. Uh, I think we can probably, right?
Trump has maintained that he declassified all documents he took with him when he began his post-presidency in Mar-a-Lago. APStaffer: I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll have to see. Yeah, we’ll have to try to –
Trump: Declassify it.
Staffer: — figure out a – yeah.
Trump: See as president I could have declassified it.
Staffer: Yeah [Laughter].
Trump: Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.
Staffer: Yeah [Laughter]. Now we have a problem.
Trump: Isn’t that interesting?
At the time of the exchange, the writer and Trump’s staffers didn’t have the security clearance that would have allowed them to be privy to the Pentagon plans, the indictment alleges.
“This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump said of the document in the meeting. AP
Trump’s attorney, Jim Trusty, told CNN Thursday night that the ex-commander in chief had received a summons to appear in a Miami federal court on Tuesday. TNSWeeks later, Trump allegedly showed a rep from his political action committee a classified map tied to a US military operation in an undisclosed country.
The ex-prez acknowledged he shouldn’t be showing off the map and told the representative he was meeting with – also at Bedminster – “not to get too close,” the court papers charge.
The FBI ended up seizing the troves of classified material from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last August after the National Archives and Records Administration repeatedly asked the former president to hand over the documents.
Trump is slated to make an initial appearance in the case in Miami federal court Tuesday at 3 p.m.
