The news network CNN somehow obtained in recent days the actual audio recording of an already reported gathering at Trump’s property at Bedminster, New Jersey, in 2021 where circumstances suggest that the then-former president was showing sensitive documents to unauthorized third parties.
“Speaking as a Watergate historian, there’s nowhere on thousands of hours of Nixon tapes where Nixon makes any comment as clear, as clearly illegal, and as clearly self-aware as this Trump tape,” Garrett M. Graff said on Twitter in reply to a post featuring some of the audio recording.
Contextually, Trump sounds on the tape like he’s clearly showing the contents of some of the files to these people, since he makes a reference to the effect of telling them to look at what he was holding, after which point they generally react accordingly — without any intervening segment where he fully outlines precisely what’s on the page.
Trump also seems to clearly admit that while in office he took no sweeping action to declassify the materials he had with him at Mar-a-Lago, his southern Florida property. He seems to agree with a comment made by someone else present that essentially indicated there would still be an active need to take such declassifying action before the doc could actually be considered to be without its protections. “This is still a secret,” Trump says.
The contention that’s been seen from some Republicans that Trump having noted on the tape that he could’ve declassified the doc as president doesn’t necessarily mean he didn’t do so is absolutely ridiculous. There’s no clearly reasonable context in which he’d be making these comments other than, as best can be told, that he made no sweeping declassification. Trump had been meeting with individuals working on a book from Mark Meadows, the chief of staff in the White House when Donald left office.
Speaking as a Watergate historian, there’s nowhere on thousands of hours of Nixon tapes where Nixon makes any comment as clear, as clearly illegal, and as clearly self-aware as this Trump tape. https://t.co/JFqyfcQb8g
— Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) June 27, 2023
