DOJ has audio recording of Trump discussing classified document he took: CNN

The Justice Department (DOJ) has an audio recording of former President Trump discussing a classified Pentagon document he took from the White House, CNN reported Wednesday.

Trump’s comments about the document, which reportedly details a potential U.S. attack on Iran, come from a July 2021 meeting at the former president’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

While talking with two people working on an autobiography for his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump referenced the document but suggested that he could not show it to the others, who did not have security clearances, according to CNN.

The former president reportedly claimed that the document came from Gen. Mark Milley, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, CNN said it was told that he did not produce the document.

Milley was questioned about the incident by investigators probing Trump’s handling of classified materials, according to CNN. Special counsel Jack Smith was appointed last fall to oversee the DOJ’s investigations into Trump, including the classified documents case.

The meeting occurred several months before the National Archives and Records Administration retrieved the first batch of documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida in January 2022. 

The Justice Department became involved after the National Archives discovered classified materials among the boxes of documents. It would eventually subpoena Trump for any remaining classified materials, later culminating in the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago last August.