Recording emerges of Donald Trump saying he is holding classified documents after leaving office

[Social Media]

 

A recording of Donald Trump saying he is holding secret documents he didn't declassify while he was president has emerged.

The tape was made at the former US president's Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club in July 2021 and seems to indicate he knew of the proper declassification procedures but did not follow them.

 

 

First obtained by CNN, the recording offers new insight into a conversation that is cited in special counsel Jack Smith's indictment against Mr Trump over the mishandling of classified documents.

The two-minute recording suggests the Republican nominee frontrunner was holding classified information about the Pentagon's plans to attack Iran.

The recording begins with Mr Trump saying, "these are bad sick people," while a staffer pointed out General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 

FULL STORY

 

[Chomper Higgot]

I wonder who leaked that and why?

[Hummin]

1 minute ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I wonder who leaked that and why?

If its a crime, it is your duty to report it! Not so complicated, and if you are or have been part of his administration, you can be prosecuted for not. 

[stuarty]

He's already come out and said this new evidence 'completely exonerates him'.....!

[placeholder]

From listening to the audio, it seems he showed the document to the woman who was interviewing him. So, it seems likely that would undercut his case that it was newspaper clippings. Especially given how he described the report as running to pages and pages.

[bamnutsak]

By far, the most shocking bit for me was everyone laughing about the sharing of classified information. What a bunch of idiots.

 

That female staffer is horrible.

 

Staffer: Yeah, {Laughter} Now we have a problem.

 

Yep.

 

00:45

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inVJF0Dr8mo&t=64s

 

 

10 minutes ago, placeholder said:

From listening to the audio, it seems he showed the document to the woman who was interviewing him. So, it seems likely that would undercut his case that it was newspaper clippings. Especially given how he described the report as running to pages and pages.

Jack Smith has already deposed everyone, but trump, who was in that meeting. The meeting was ostensibly for the writer working on Mark Meadows bio, but of course trump had to make it about himself, and share classified documents he transported from Mar a Lago to Bedminster. Stupidest person ever. 

[Chomper Higgot]

22 minutes ago, Hummin said:

If its a crime, it is your duty to report it! Not so complicated, and if you are or have been part of his administration, you can be prosecuted for not. 

I wasn’t referring to the recording being given to the FBI, rather it also being given to the press.

 

 

[HappyExpat57]

I've listened to this recording several times. The complete lackadaisical attitude of ALL involved is staggering. These were secret war plans to attack Iran that this traitor stole then lied to the government he was supposed to serve and represent about having. Apparently the dissemination of this info is an even bigger crime than anything to date. This has entered Rosenberg territory.

 

The most foul, disgusting aspect of this whole damned thing is that his poll numbers are RISING among Republicans. How can anyone be so obtuse so as to follow this base creature?

 

Take just a moment and imagine if it were President Obama performing these crimes. Heads would explode!

 

Jesus wept . . .

 

 

 

[ThailandRyan]

1 minute ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I wasn’t referring to the recording being given to the FBI, rather it also being given to the press.

 

 

Maybe it was an intentional leak in order to play to the court of public opinion and encourage the Donald to seek an out of court Plea deal.  It looks really bad for him from a former LEO's perspective.

[Chomper Higgot]

1 minute ago, ThailandRyan said:

Maybe it was an intentional leak in order to play to the court of public opinion and encourage the Donald to seek an out of court Plea deal.  It looks really bad for him from a former LEO's perspective.

Maybe.

 

Maybe it’s an intentional leak to try to get ahead of bad news by spinning it as an exoneration.

[Bkk Brian]

Just now, ThailandRyan said:

Maybe it was an intentional leak in order to play to the court of public opinion and encourage the Donald to seek an out of court Plea deal.  It looks really bad for him from a former LEO's perspective.

I wouldn't mind betting that the people Trump was talking to in this audio are part of the 80 odd included in the prosecution witness list.

[ozimoron]

28 minutes ago, Hummin said:

If its a crime, it is your duty to report it! Not so complicated, and if you are or have been part of his administration, you can be prosecuted for not. 

I think it was just somebody in the audience who knew they were sitting on evidence and prefer justice and truth rather then sitting on evidence to protect a criminal. Simple as that, nothing nefarious to see here.

[ozimoron]

2 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

I wouldn't mind betting that the people Trump was talking to in this audio are part of the 80 odd included in the prosecution witness list.

Good call.

[Chomper Higgot]

25 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

I wouldn't mind betting that the people Trump was talking to in this audio are part of the 80 odd included in the prosecution witness list.

I wouldn’t mind betting all 84 witnesses are Republicans or former members of Trump’s Republican Administration.

[ozimoron]

8 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I wouldn’t mind betting all 84 witnesses are Republicans or former members of Trump’s Republican Administration.

It's hard to imagine what he was thinking. Oh, wait...

[Tug]

Besides the obvious shock disgust and anger of this so called ex president endangering our country and our allies was the ease in witch the staffer seemed to manipulate trump.it was shocking imagine the ease of someone he admires would have manipulating him that’s scary!(putin helinsky)

[herfiehandbag]

52 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I wasn’t referring to the recording being given to the FBI, rather it also being given to the press.

 

 

I think it was leaked by Straw.

 

The more damning evidence that they can make public, the greater the pressure on Mr Trump to plead.

 

This will reduce the impact of the blatantly partisan judge who has been landed with conducting the trial, and likely remove the problem of how to send a former President, standing for re-election, to gaol. If he pleads he will still be a convicted felon, disgraced although never in his alternate reality of course, but still a felon.

 

Several years of home detention in that absolute epitome of garish bad taste that is Mar a Lago could of course be regarded as a cruel and unusual punishment, especially as it would probably be accompanied by a diet of cold courier delivered McDonalds burgers, and being forced to evacuate his bowels in "restrooms" crammed with cardboard boxes of documents might just be punishment enough!

[sirineou]

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

From listening to the audio, it seems he showed the document to the woman who was interviewing him. So, it seems likely that would undercut his case that it was newspaper clippings. Especially given how he described the report as running to pages and pages.

This is the one they have on tape. Do you suppose they were the only ones he showed them too.?

[onthedarkside]

Inflammatory trolling post reported/removed along with a reply

[Tug]

The silence from the trump supporters is deafening……….

[candide]

In a way, It's quite cool to investigate Trump. He cannot stop opening his big gob and provides himself the evidence needed to incriminate him! ????

[bendejo]

Quote

"I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said, 'He wanted to attack Iran', and what…" Mr Trump could be heard saying before adding, "These are the papers."

So he was thinking he could disparage Milley by accusing him of wanting to attack Iran.  I guess he had been too busy running his scams for the 10+ years before he officially entered politics to know that there has long been sentiment in the right-wing side of US politics to do just that.  This news getting out may actually be a negative for the orange guy with the neocons and other gung-ho Americans.

But listen to his delivery on the recording: can you count how many times he says "this was him" ?   Slimey sales techniques, like DeSantis giving a speech and managing to say "woke" 12 times within 20 seconds.

“Isn’t that interesting.”  That's not the way he talks, it's part of a prepared performance.

 

[Bkk Brian]

Fox News (LOL) are suggesting Trump leaked the audio himself............

 

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. 

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

[jerrymahoney]

 

Opinion
Trying Trump under the Espionage Act will be trickier than you think

 

The charges in the indictment against Donald Trump might seem simple: Trump finished his term as president, became an ordinary citizen, yet retained 31 classified documents that, under the Espionage Act, he should have returned to the government upon demand.

 

Trump’s defense attorneys will probably comb the internet to demonstrate that the information in the classified documents was public and therefore could not have harmed national security. The amount of material out there is remarkable, and based on my experience, it would not be unusual to find that much of the information in the 31 retained documents — especially the older ones — is already publicly available.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/21/trump-prosecution-espionage-act-tricky/

 

https://archive.is/UJhXJ

 

NB as per Twitter: “retweets do not imply endorsement.”

 

 

[ThailandRyan]

51 minutes ago, jerrymahoney said:

 

Opinion
Trying Trump under the Espionage Act will be trickier than you think

 

The charges in the indictment against Donald Trump might seem simple: Trump finished his term as president, became an ordinary citizen, yet retained 31 classified documents that, under the Espionage Act, he should have returned to the government upon demand.

 

Trump’s defense attorneys will probably comb the internet to demonstrate that the information in the classified documents was public and therefore could not have harmed national security. The amount of material out there is remarkable, and based on my experience, it would not be unusual to find that much of the information in the 31 retained documents — especially the older ones — is already publicly available.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/21/trump-prosecution-espionage-act-tricky/

 

https://archive.is/UJhXJ

 

NB as per Twitter: “retweets do not imply endorsement.”

 

 

So Nuclear capabilities is common knowledge now, as well as all locations of said weapons.  I don't think so.

[jerrymahoney]

9 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

So Nuclear capabilities is common knowledge now, as well as all locations of said weapons.  I don't think so.

No problem. Letters<at>washingtonpost.com to reply to the former US Prosecutor experienced in Espionage Act cases.

[spidermike007]

Trump is a coward and a traitor, who has always considered himself to be above the law. I truly hope he ends up behind bars. He richly deserves that. 

[Purdey]

I do wish people would not throw around the word traitor so frequently when they really mean "someone I don't like."

 

The Constitution* is very clear on what constitutes treason and involves aiding an enemy the U.S. is at war with. The U.S. is not at war with any country at present. However, there are many countries that the U.S. "dislikes".

*Article III, Section 3, Clause 1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. 

[TheFishman1]

Trump is a big ConMan. He lies so much she can’t even keep his story straight. Go down as the worst president in American history.

[HappyExpat57]

7 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

 

Opinion
Trying Trump under the Espionage Act will be trickier than you think

 

The charges in the indictment against Donald Trump might seem simple: Trump finished his term as president, became an ordinary citizen, yet retained 31 classified documents that, under the Espionage Act, he should have returned to the government upon demand.

 

Trump’s defense attorneys will probably comb the internet to demonstrate that the information in the classified documents was public and therefore could not have harmed national security. The amount of material out there is remarkable, and based on my experience, it would not be unusual to find that much of the information in the 31 retained documents — especially the older ones — is already publicly available.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/21/trump-prosecution-espionage-act-tricky/

 

https://archive.is/UJhXJ

 

NB as per Twitter: “retweets do not imply endorsement.”

 

 

No. Too many pieces are NOT in the public domain, and he has admitted multiple times he was aware he took them, that they were STILL CLASSIFIED, and that he did NOT have the authority to declassify them. In the words of Bill Barr (his former butt buddy) "He's toast."