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Trump showed off secret Iran attack plans inside Bedminster resort [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2023-06-09
CNN reports that they've obtained a partial transcript of the audio recording of the 2021 meeting between Donald Trump and associates in his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, a meeting in which Trump allegedly showed off classified government documents while acknowledging that they were indeed classified.
The transcript is astonishing. We knew audio existed of Trump referring to the documents in a meeting between himself, aides, and two authors working on an "autobiography" of ex-Trump administration Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, but the actual transcript seems to prove most of prosecutors' case against Trump in one fell swoop.
CNN reports that their "several" sources say that the audio itself "captures the sound of paper rustling" as Trump refers to documents that appear to be military attack scenarios targeting Iran, allegedly given to him by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
“Well, with Milley – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him,” Trump says, according to the transcript. “They presented me this – this is off the record, but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him.” Trump continues: “All sorts of stuff – pages long, look. Wait a minute, let’s see here. I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this.”
"This is secret information, look at this" is about a terse a summary of the allegations against Trump that could be devised, but the whole of Trump's speech would also appear to explain the special interest special counsel Jack Smith's team took in Trump's relationship with Milley and in documents possibly still in Trump's possession that either referred to him or came to Trump's possession through him. At the time of the meeting, Trump was fuming about reporting that alleged Milley specifically warned military leadership of the threat of Trump issuing illegal orders in a possible attempt to stay in power after his November 2020 election loss.
That Trump refers to the document as "confidential" and "secret" is especially telling since both words are displayed prominently on the folders and cover sheets of classified documents found in Trump's possession at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. With the sounds of rustling paper, it is reasonable to suspect that Trump was, in fact, reading those words directly off the document he was presenting.
Prosecutors have allegedly indicted Trump on a host of charges focused on Trump's "willful retention" and repeated attempts to "corruptly conceal" classified documents he took from the White House and kept at Mar-a-Lago after his presidency was over, a set of charges that cleanly mark Trump's case as something far different from the apparently inadvertent retention of single or small sets of classified documents by other ex-government officials.
What prosecutors are not charging him–at least not yet–it is apparent Trump’s actions could lead to espionage charges.
The audio also shows Trump was using the classified documents for his own self-interest, in this case to bolster a thoroughly petty and insignificant grievance against the military officer who presented them. It does not show that Trump attempted to make money directly from those documents, but it does show that he did keep and use them for his own personal gain.
U.S. military plans for striking Iran, which are the specific documents Trump appears to be referring to here, are of keen interest to Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments—and are missing. Reports indicate federal investigators have not been able to find the Iran documents Trump was referring to during this meeting, which suggests that either Trump still has them in his possession, or worse, he doesn't.
This is not yet a full-on case of espionage, but federal investigators are in possession of an uncomfortable amount of evidence suggesting that it's now well within the realm of possibility.
It's been unclear why Smith and the Justice Department conducted a search inside Mar-a-Lago but so far have not sought similar warrants to search Trump's other properties. They have evidence from Trump's own mouth that shows some of the classified documents he took with him when he cleared out of the White House were at one point in Bedminster, New Jersey, with he himself thumbing through them. That makes the decision not to conduct a more thorough search of his multiple homes confusing, with at least one highly sensitive national security document still missing.
With Trump's indictment for concealment and obstruction now public knowledge, perhaps prosecutors will be willing to take those new steps to find what Trump appears to still be hiding.
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