NEW TRUMP TAPES: CNN Finds Out What’s On All Those Recordings Jack Smith Just Turned Over To Trump Lawyers
CNN sources have revealed what was on some of the tapes whose existence was revealed by Special Counsel Jack Smith in an evidentiary disclosure to ex-President Donald Trump’s defense team.
One of the most explosive pieces of evidence to emerge in the 37-count indictment against Trump on Espionage Act charges was the audio recording on which Trump discussed a classified document that he had taken with him when he left the White House — a tape in which Trump acknowledged he can’t show the document to his visitors because of the classification attached to it.
But a new filing in the case Wednesday revealed the first batch of evidence that has been provided to Trump’s attorneys through the discovery process, which includes “interviews” — plural — that match the description of the tape we already knew about.
On Friday morning’s edition of CNN News Central, CNN’s Paula Reid detailed what sources told her (and Katelyn Polantz) is on some of those tapes referenced in the filing, which were compiled during the investigation:
PAULA REID: On Wednesday night, the special counsel revealed that he’s already started handing over evidence in this case to defense attorneys as part of the discovery process. But what really stood out to us in that court filing late Wednesday is that he revealed that he had interviews, plural, with former President Trump that were recorded with his consent. Now, we know that after he left office, the former president was in the habit of recording any interviews that he did with journalists, media types, biographers, folks working on books, even if they were friendly to him. He wanted to have his own record.
But the only interview that we knew that investigators had was, of course, that explosive July 2021 recording where Trump is talking to some folks working on Mark Meadows’ autobiography. He starts talking about Mark Milley and then appears to be showing people in the room without a security clearance, a classified document that’s mentioned in the indictment.
But the fact that there were additional interviews, well, that piqued our interest. So we started calling our sources and we learned that, in fact, Trump’s own lawyers actually handed over around a half a dozen additional recordings.
They were subpoenaed earlier this year for any materials related to Mark Milley. And they did find additional recordings where Trump talked about Mark Milley, but he didn’t reference any classified material. So it’s unclear if these are going to be really helpful to prosecutors in any eventual trial.
But as part of Discovery, Kate, lawyers have to hand over everything they’ve collected, even if it’s not incriminating, even if they’re not going to use it at trial. Now, we know they also have at least one additional source that has provided them with additional recordings.
But at this point, multiple sources tell CNN that none of these additional interviews will rise to the level of incriminating material the same way that Bedminster 2021 recording does.
But all of this just speaks to a how quickly the special counsel is moving that he’s trying to already hand over this evidence, get this process under way. And also just how much stuff they’ve collected in the course of this investigation now.
KATE BOLDUAN: And you and your great reporting, you continue to learn, I’m sure, uncovering just how much more they are there collecting in terms of evidence in this investigation.
Watch above via CNN News Central.
