Trump, Iran and the ‘Highly Confidential’ Document

Fact Check-June 21st 2023

By Eugene Kiely

In an interview with Fox News, former President Donald Trump denied showing a classified plan of a U.S. attack on Iran when he met in July 2021 with four people who lacked security clearances — contrary to an audio transcript of Trump contained in the 37-count federal indictment against him.

Trump told Fox News anchor Bret Baier that he “didn’t have a document, per se,” and suggested that instead he showed his guests copies of newspaper and magazine articles. “Bret, there was no document,” Trump said in an interview that aired June 19.

The indictment says that Trump met on July 21, 2021, at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, with “a writer and a publisher in connection with a then-forthcoming book,” referring to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ book, “The Chief’s Chief.” Two Trump staffers were also there. Six days before the meeting, Susan Glasser of the New Yorker published a story that detailed how Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was concerned Trump might attack Iran in the final days of his presidency.

At the meeting in New Jersey, Trump told his guests that Milley wanted to attack Iran and, in fact, presented him with an attack plan, the audio transcript shows.

“Look. This was him. They presented me this—this is off the record, but—they presented me this,” Trump said at the meeting. “This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.” The writer present at the meeting responded: “Wow.”

Here we will detail what the indictment says about Trump’s July 2021 meeting and what the former president says about the incident. We also will provide what Meadows’ book briefly says about Milley’s “own plan to attack Iran.” (For more on Trump’s indictment, see “Q&A on Trump’s Federal Indictment.”)

What the Indictment Says

The indictment contains the transcript of an audiotape of the July 2021 meeting. The conversation was reportedly taped by Trump attorney Evan Corcoran, who was ordered to testify before a grand jury under the “crime fraud” exception to attorney-client privilege.

Trump is heard discussing what he says is a “highly confidential” “plan of attack” that is “still a secret.”

Indictment, United States v. Trump: Upon greeting the writer, publisher, and his two staff members, TRUMP stated, “Look what I found, this was [the Senior Military Official’s] plan of attack, read it and just show … it’s interesting.” Later in the interview, TRUMP engaged in the following exchange:

Trump: Well, with [the Senior Military Official]—uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack [Country A]. Isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this—this is off the record, but—they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.

Writer: Wow.

Trump: We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff—pages long, look.

Staffer: Mm.

Trump: Wait a minute, let’s see here.

Staffer: [Laughter] Yeah.

Trump: I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know.

Staffer: Mm-hm.

Trump: Except it is like, highly confidential.

Staffer: Yeah. [Laughter]

Trump: Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack, and

Read more on the original:

Trump: By the way. Isn’t that incredible?

Staffer: Yeah.

Trump: I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said, “he wanted to attack [Country A], and what …”

Staffer: You did.

Trump: This was done by the military and given to me. Uh, I think we can probably, right?

Staffer: I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll have to see. Yeah, we’ll have to try to—

Trump: Declassify it.

Staffer: — figure out a — yeah.

Trump: See as president I could have declassified it.

Staffer: Yeah. [Laughter]

Trump: Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret

Staffer: Yeah. [Laughter] Now we have a problem.

Trump: Isn’t that interesting.

Read more on the original:

https://www.factcheck.org/2023/06/trump-iran-and-the-highly-confidential-document/