A source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News that the Defense Department memo on Iran, which was at the heart of the now-public audio recording of a July 2021 meeting with former President Donald Trump, is not among the 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information charged in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of the former president.
The recording of the meeting at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club shows the former president allegedly exhibiting and discussing “highly confidential, secret” information with aides. According to sources, the documents were related to plans for a possible US assault on Iran.
“It is like highly confidential, secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump remarked in an audio clip acquired by CBS News. “See, as president I could have declassified, but now I can’t, you know…Isn’t that interesting? It’s so cool.”
The document and recording are portrayed in Smith’s team’s indictment of Trump earlier this month as an alleged meeting with “a writer, a publisher, and two members of” Trump’s staff, “none of whom possessed a security clearance.”
However, according to a source familiar with the situation, Trump was not charged with illegally retaining the Iran-related paper mentioned in the video.
Smith’s 37-count indictment against Trump includes 31 counts of retaining national defense information knowingly. It provides a basic overview of each of the 31 classified records that prosecutors claim Trump illegally maintained without specifying the specific subject matter. According to the source, the Iran memo is not among the 31 documents listed in the indictment.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELDuring the years-long FBI investigation into Trump’s White House records, investigators have seized more than 300 documents with classified markings, including 103 obtained last year during the execution of a search warrant at Trump’s Florida estate.
Previously, many people familiar with the inquiry told CBS News that defense attorneys were skeptical that the disputed Iran memo was ever retrieved and delivered to the government. Nonetheless, the 2021 event is one of two indictment references in which Smith recounts Trump allegedly revealing national security material to individuals without the necessary approval.
In the tape, Trump appears to acknowledge that he held a sensitive record after leaving office and no longer had the authority to declassify it.
On Fox News on Tuesday, Trump was asked about the recording, and he asserted he “did nothing wrong.”
“My voice was fine,” Trump explained on Fox News. “What did I say wrong in those recordings? I didn’t even see the recording. All I know is I did nothing wrong. We had a lot of papers, a lot of papers stacked up. In fact, you could hear the rustle of the paper. And nobody said I did anything wrong.”
In another interview, Trump told Semafor and ABC News that he did not have any sensitive documents, referring to the conversation captured on tape as “bravado.”
“I just held up a whole pile of — my desk is loaded up with papers. I have papers from 25 different things,” he explained.
CNN was the first to report on the existence of the audiotape and the July 2021 meeting, as well as the first to get a recording of the discussion.
According to sources familiar with the situation, Trump brought up the allegedly classified document while talking about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who was portrayed in a New Yorker story as fighting to keep Trump from attacking Iran in the final days of his presidency.
In the meeting audio, the former president informs those present that the paper discredits any criticism leveled at him.
Smith’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump pleaded not guilty earlier this month to a total of 37 counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors claim he and an aide, Waltine Nauta, worked together to transfer boxes carrying classified information across Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Nauta was supposed to be arraigned in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, but airline delays and difficulties obtaining local legal counsel pushed the hearing out until next week.
