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Special counsel obtains July 2021 audio of Trump discussing document he had that was still classified
Washington — Federal investigators have obtained an audio recording of former President Donald Trump in which he acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document after he left the White House, according to people familiar with the matter.
The recording — from a July 2021 meeting at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey — is a crucial piece of evidence that prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith’s office obtained in recent months and presented in grand-jury proceedings examining the former president’s retention of sensitive records and possible obstruction of the investigation, the people said.
CNN first reported the existence of the audio tape and prosecutors’ possession of the recording.
According to two people familiar with the matter, Trump can be heard on the recording conceding that there were national security restrictions on the memo because it detailed a potential attack on Iran. It is not clear from the recording whether Trump was in possession of the document at the time or was just describing its contents to at least three people who were present during the meeting, the people said. CBS News has not listened to the audio.
In the recording, Trump acknowledges the Iran document is still classified and he should have declassified it before he left the White House, one of the people said.
Trump aide Margo Martin and other individuals who were working on an autobiography of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were present at the meeting, the people confirmed to CBS News. The sources said that on the audio the former president mentioned the classified document when he was talking about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, who according to the New Yorker, had fought in the last days of the Trump administration to keep the president from attacking Iran.
In recent months, Martin was spotted at the federal courthouse where Smith has been convening a grand jury.
Martin’s attorney did not comment on this report. The special counsel’s office also declined to comment.
Smith and his team are investigating the former president after documents with classified markings from his tenure in the White House were uncovered at Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, in August 2022. Prosecutors are also looking into whether there were efforts to obstruct attempts to recover the records, according to multiple sources close to the investigation.
“Leaks from radical partisans behind this political persecution are designed to inflame tensions and continue the media’s harassment of President Trump and his supporters. It’s just more proof that when it comes to President Trump, there are absolutely no depths to which they will not sink as they pursue their witch hunts,” a Trump spokesperson said in a statement, “The DOJ’s continued interference in the presidential election is shameful and this meritless investigation should cease wasting the American taxpayer’s money on Democrat political objectives.”
During a CNN town hall earlier this month, Trump argued he was “allowed” to take such documents, and in the past has said he declassified the records in question, but the audio obtained by prosecutors raises questions about his defense.
Grand jury activity and requests for evidence have slowed in recent weeks, sources said, indicating the investigation may be coming to a close. Numerous former White House aides and Mar-a-Lago employees — from security officials and valets — have been called to testify in secret proceedings in Washington, D.C.
Prosecutors have gathered evidence that Trump’s resort staff moved boxes the day before a June 2022 visit to Mar-a-Lago by the FBI and a federal prosecutor, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. Trump’s team was aware of the scheduled visit and held a so-called dress rehearsal for the visit ahead of time, according to the source. This was first reported by the Washington Post.
It remains unclear whether the Iran-related classified document was turned over to the National Archives as part of the months-long negotiation process between government officials and Trump attorneys, or if it was recovered during the August 2022 search at Mar-a-Lago. But what is clear is that the meeting captured in the recording occurred a few months after officials from the National Archives notified Trump attorneys that White House records were missing.
In late 2022, Trump attorneys hired a firm to conduct a search for any remaining classified documents at Trump properties including Bedminister.
The July 2021 meeting captured in the recording mirrors an instance described in Meadows’ autobiography in which Trump displayed a 4-page memo to a group meeting at his New Jersey club.
The special counsel, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland late last year, is also investigating the former president’s conduct around the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in either case. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who will be announcing his 2024 presidential candidacy next week, testified before a grand jury in that investigation earlier this year.
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Sen. Thom Tillis says “the scope” of Helene damage in North Carolina “is more like Katrina”
As recovery missions and repairs continue in North Carolina more than a week after Hurricane Helene carved a path of devastation through the western part of the state, the state’s Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called for more resources to bolster the relief effort and likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina’s mark on Louisiana in 2005.
“This is unlike anything that we’ve seen in this state,” Tillis told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday morning. “We need increased attention. We need to continue to increase the surge of federal resources.”
Hurricane Helene ripped through the Southeast U.S. after making landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a powerful Category 4 storm. Helene brought heavy rain and catastrophic flooding to communities across multiple states, including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, with North Carolina bearing the brunt of the destruction. Officials previously said hundreds of roads in western North Carolina were washed out and inaccessible after the storm, hampering rescue operations, and several highways were blocked by mudslides.
Tillis said Sunday that most roads in the region likely remained closed due to flooding and debris. Water, electricity and other essential services still have not been fully restored.
“The scope of this storm is more like Katrina,” he said. “It may look like a flood to the outside observer, but again, this is a landmass roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, with damage distributed throughout. We have to get maximum resources on the ground immediately to finish rescue operations.”
Hurricane Katrina left more than 1,000 people dead after it slammed into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast in August 2005, flooding neighborhoods and destroying infrastructure in and around New Orleans as well as in parts of the surrounding region. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. in the last 50 years, and the costliest storm on record.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene is at least 229, CBS News has confirmed, with at least 116 of those deaths reported in North Carolina alone. Officials have said they expect the death toll to continue to rise as recovery efforts were ongoing, and a spokesperson for the police department in Asheville told CBS News Friday their officers were “actively working 75 cases of missing persons.”
On Saturday, the U.S. Department of Transportation released $100 million in emergency funds for North Carolina to rebuild the roads and bridges damaged by the hurricane.
“We are providing this initial round of funding so there’s no delay getting roads repaired and reopened, and re-establishing critical routes,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration will be with North Carolina every step of the way, and today’s emergency funding to help get transportation networks back up and running safely will be followed by additional federal resources.”
President Biden previously announced that the federal government would cover “100%” of costs for debris removal and emergency protective measures in North Carolina for six months.
With North Carolina leaders working with a number of relief agencies to deal with the aftermath of the storm, Tillis urged federal officials to ramp up the resources being funneled into the state’s hardest-hit areas. The senator also addressed a surge in conspiracy theories and misinformation about the Biden Administration’s disaster response, which have been fueled by Republican political figures like former President Donald Trump.
Trump falsely claimed that Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the November presidential election, were diverting funds from Federal Emergency Management Agency that would support the relief effort in North Carolina toward initiatives for immigrants. He also said baselessly that the administration and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, were withholding funds because many communities that were hit hardest are predominantly Republican. Elon Musk has shared false claims about FEMA, too.
“Many of these observations are not even from people on the ground,” Tillis said of those claims. “I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground. It’s at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”
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