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Prosecutors Have Tape of Trump on Docs 06/01 06:17
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Justice Department prosecutors have obtained an audio
recording of former President Donald Trump from after he left office in which
he talks about holding onto a classified Pentagon document related to a
potential attack on Iran, according to media reports.
CNN, which first reported on the tape, said Trump suggested on the recording
that he wanted to share information from the document with others but that he
knew there were limitations about his ability to declassify records after he
left office.
The comments on the recording, made in July 2021 at his golf club in
Bedminster, New Jersey, would seem to undercut the former president's repeated
claims that he declassified the documents he took with him from the White House
to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, after leaving office. The recording could
also be a key aid for prosecutors looking to prove Trump knew his ability to
possess classified documents was limited.
The recording has been provided to special counsel Jack Smith, whose team of
prosecutors have spent months investigating the potential mishandling of
classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and whether Trump or anyone else sought to
criminally obstruct the probe. The investigation shows signs of being in its
final stages, with prosecutors having interviewed a broad cross-section of
witnesses before the grand jury.
No one has been criminally charged.
The criminal investigation began last year after the National Archives and
Records Administration alerted the FBI to the presence of classified documents
in 15 boxes of records sent back, belatedly, from Mar-a-Lago by Trump and his
representatives. Investigators initially issued a subpoena for remaining
classified records, but after they received only about three dozen during a
June 2022 visit to Mar-a-Lago, returned with a search warrant two months later
and recovered about 100 more documents marked as classified.
Smith, the special counsel, is also investigating efforts by Trump and his
allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election -- the subject of
a similar, ongoing inquiry by prosecutors in Atlanta. New York prosecutors
charged Trump earlier this year with falsifying business records.
According to the CNN report, the recording was made during a gathering at
Bedminster with aides to Trump and two people who were working on the
autobiography of Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
It said Meadows' autobiography includes a description of what appears to be
the same meeting. A lawyer for Meadows declined to comment Wednesday when
reached by The Associated Press.
CNN said witnesses including Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, have been questioned about the episode. A spokesman for Milley
declined to comment on reports that he had been interviewed.
A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.
A Trump spokesman said in a statement that the investigation was "meritless"
and amounted to "continued interference in the presidential election."
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