George Conway, an attorney and prominent conservative critic of former President Trump, said Monday that the former president’s comments on a newly released audio tape discussing holding onto classified documents are “stunning,” calling him a “sociopathic criminal.”
Descriptions of the recording had been included in the 37-count federal indictment alleging Trump’s handling of sensitive material violated the Espionage Act and obstructed justice with his handling of sensitive material after leaving the White House, but the audio was not publicly available until CNN aired it Monday. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“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 audio tape while laughing about it is something — I just, I think it’s just stunning,” Conway said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
The audio recorded a 2021 meeting in which Trump discussed his retention of classified documents in Bedminster, N.J. The conversation — which included Trump, two of his staff members, an author and a publisher — is seen as a key piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against the former president.
“It’s just sociopathic. I mean, 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. … It’s just another thing that’s gonna put him away,” added Conway, who is reportedly divorcing former Trump White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after being married 22 years.
Trump claimed that the recording of the conversation “is actually an exoneration,” but Conway on Monday said he doesn’t know how Trump’s team will be able to explain the comments on tape to a jury.
“I mean, he’s waving around a document, he’s saying it’s confidential. It is by — almost by definition, one of the most confidential things you could possibly have, which is [an] off-the-shelf plan to attack a potential enemy of the United States of America. I mean, that’s very, very valuable, top-secret information. It’s something that the Iranians would probably pay tens of millions of dollars for,” Conway said.
Conway said earlier this month that it would be “kind of fitting” for Trump, who is now running for president in 2024, to go to jail over “something so stupid and pointless” as keeping classified documents past the end of his White House term and refusing to give them back when subpoenaed by the Justice Department.