It was painted as a bombshell recording: former President Donald Trump being negligent with a classified map of a military operation in front of an unauthorized person. The military plan was supposedly a scenario in which we would invade Iran; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley reportedly ordered its creation. It’s not a good look, but it wasn’t germane to the investigation of classified documents.
Listen: Audio July 2021 meeting at former Pres. Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, reveals him discussing “highly confidential, secret” records he describes as plan of attack related to Iran. Tone + context matter says former DOJ official. pic.twitter.com/9ruXFqm3RC
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) June 27, 2023
By that, I mean it’s not included in the evidence supporting the Trump indictment over this alleged mishandling of sensitive files. CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge, a former Fox News reporter, clarified the recently leaked audio recording of the president regarding this Iran memo. The tapes didn’t do Trump any favors, but Herridge also gutted the core of the latest liberal media narrative over this indictment (via CBS News):
Iran memo — at the heart of the now-public audio recording — is not part of the 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information charged in the special counsel indictment, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. https://t.co/84XXgmDoeR
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) June 27, 2023
The Defense Department memo on Iran — at the heart of the now-public audio recording that captured a July 2021 meeting with former President Donald Trump — is not part of the 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information charged in special counsel Jack Smith's indictment of the former president, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News.
In the recording of the meeting at Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, the former president can be heard apparently showing and discussing what he described as "highly confidential, secret" documents with aides. Sources say the documents were related to plans for a potential U.S. attack on Iran.
"It is like highly confidential, secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this," Trump said in the audio tape obtained 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 described in the indictment Smith's team secured against Trump earlier this month, recounted as an alleged meeting with "a writer, a publisher, and two members of" Trump's staff, "none of whom possessed a security clearance."
But according to a source familiar with the matter, Trump was not charged with unlawfully holding onto the Iran-related document discussed in the recording.
Of course, “[Special Counsel Jack] Smith's office declined to comment,” probably because he leaked the tape to CNN. Still, that doesn’t mean the indictment has been tossed. Trump will still face a trial, either during the height of the 2024 election or possibly after it. In other instances in the indictment, Trump committed preventable stumbles that only made it easier for the army of anti-Trump lawyers at the Justice Department to make their case in this investigation. Those will be argued later, but for now, regarding whether Trump leaked military secrets to unauthorized personnel, we can look past it. It’s not part of the case.
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