CNN Reporter Who Broke New Trump Tape Bombshell Torpedoes Trump Response: ‘Of Course We Know That’s Not True’

CNN correspondent Paula Reid torpedoed ex-President Donald Trump’s response to the classified documents bombshell that she and Kaitlan Collins broke this week.

Reid and Collins broke the news Wednesday afternoon that Trump was caught on tape discussing a classified document that he had taken with him when he left the White House — and the Justice Department investigation headed by Special Counsel Jack Smith now has that tape in its possession.

On the tape, Trump reportedly acknowledges he can’t show the document — which outlines a plan to attack Iran — to his visitors because of the classification attached to it.

On Thursday night’s edition of Fox News’s Hannity, Trump was asked, “Do you know who this call may be with? Do you know anything about it?” Trump replied, “No, I don’t know anything about it. All I know is this: Everything I did was right. We have the Presidential Records Act, which I abided by 100%.”

On Friday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, co-anchor Rahel Solomon played the Hannity clip and asked Reid to comment. Reid took apart Trump’s response piece by piece:

SOLOMON: Paula, part of the team that broke the story. So, what do you make of Trump’s response and what he said last night?

PAULA REID: Well, we just heard a tiny bit of the clip there where he refers to the Presidential Records Act, insisting that he had complied with it fully. Of course, we know that’s not true because his team had to return 15 boxes of materials to the National Archives. And that was before the FBI conducted a search of his Mar-a-Lago residence.

And then subsequently, his attorneys did additional searches not only for possible presidential records. So, those are materials that are created during the administration but are the property of the government, but they were also, of course, looking for any classified documents, of which we know there were many.

So, this explanation doesn’t quite add up. But this is what we’ve seen before from the former president. When he’s under investigation, he makes a blanket insistence that he has done nothing wrong. There is rarely any nuance, but what we’ve seen him and his attorneys do is try to conflate the idea of complying with the Presidential Records Act.

Again, that means you have to put all these records back in the Archives when you leave office because they belong to the American people, and also these questions about possibly mishandling defense information or classified materials. It’s a way to kind of confuse the issues and also downplay really the gravity of what investigators are looking at.

SOLOMON: And, Paula, of course, that was a clip from Fox town hall. He was talking to the press. I mean, do the constant denials, at least to members of the press, do they impact the case against him at all?

REID: Not really. I always remind people it’s not a crime to lie to the media, to lie to the public. It is, though, a crime to lie to federal investigators. And we know that as part of this criminal investigation, the Justice Department special counsel, Jack Smith, is looking at whether the former president or anyone else tried to obstruct this investigation.

But what’s so interesting, though, about this audio recording is I keep reminding people he knew he was being recorded. This was a recording that he made, as he was in the habit of doing that summer, when he was talking to journalists or writers, people working on books, he would have his aides record the conversation. So, he knew he was being recorded when he suggested, he claimed that he was in possession of a classified document and then also really acknowledged the limits of his ability to declassify.

So, it’s really hard to reconcile those statements with the public defenses that he and his attorneys have given. But, ultimately, what truly matters are what they say to investigators and what they say in court if there are any charges brought.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.

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