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Jabin Botsford

Special counsel Jack Smith has obtained a 2021 recording in which <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> appears to brag about having a classified document related to Iran, suggesting the former president understood both the legal and security concerns around his possession of such restricted information, multiple people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The recording was made at a meeting at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, N.J., said the people, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation. The audio features Trump describing a multi-page document that he claims is about possibly attacking Iran, expressing a desire to share that information with others but also making some kind of acknowledgment that he shouldn’t do so, the people said.

Adriana Usero

The existence of the recording was first reported by CNN. It has not been made public, and the people familiar with it would not describe Trump’s statements verbatim. But for Justice Department prosecutors examining Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House, the audio could be important evidence about Trump’s state of mind and his understanding of the rules about classified information — and it might show the path of certain sensitive documents once they left the White House.

Trump’s lawyers have suggested that the former president either did not know he possessed classified documents after leaving the White House or could have declassified such material while in office.

“If you have the authority to declassify, you are not wedded to any bureaucratic process,” Trump lawyer James Trusty said  Wednesday night on CNN.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/29/trump-investigations-litigation/" target=_blank>Donald Trump is facing historic legal scrutiny</a> for a former president. He has been indicted on 91 felony counts in two federal cases, in Florida and D.C., and two state cases, in Manhattan and Fulton County, Ga. He has denied all wrongdoing. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/trump-investigations-indictments/" target=_blank>Here is a list of the key probes</a> and where they stand.

Manhattan district attorney’s investigation

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/30/trump-ny-indictment/" target="_blank">Trump has been indicted on 34 felony counts</a> following an investigation by District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) of business matters involving Trump, including his alleged role in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/14/trump-stormy-daniels-case/" target="_blank">hush money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels</a> during the 2016 campaign. The trial <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/23/trump-court-hearing-share-evidence/" target="_blank">is scheduled to begin March 25</a>, with a hearing in mid-February to see if delays are needed.

Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/27/trump-carlos-deoliveira-classified-indictment/" target=_blank>Trump has been indicted on 40 felony counts</a> after FBI agents found more than <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/02/fbi-inventory-mar-a-lago/" target=_blank>100 classified documents</a> during a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/08/trump-mar-a-lago-search-fbi/" target=_blank>search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence</a> on Aug. 8, 2022, as part of a criminal probe into possible mishandling of classified information. The trial is<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/21/trump-trial-date-classified-documents/" target=_blank> scheduled to start in late May</a> but could be delayed as lawyers deal with the complicated procedures surrounding classified evidence.

Justice Dept. criminal probe of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/january-6-capitol-riot/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Jan. 6</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/01/trump-indictment-jan-6-2020-election/" target=_blank>Trump has been indicted on four felony charges</a> related to trying to block the results of the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors are focusing on the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/january-6-capitol-riot/" target=_blank>Jan. 6, 2021, riot</a> and whether Trump or his aides <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/26/trump-justice-investigation-january-6/" target=_blank>conspired to obstruct Congress’s certification</a> of the election or committed fraud to block the peaceful transfer of power. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/18/justice-trump-garland-special-counsel/?itid=lk_inline_manual_16" target=_blank>Prosecutor Jack Smith</a> is overseeing both federal investigations.

Georgia election results investigation

Former president <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/14/trump-indictment-georgia-election-2020/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2" target=_blank>Donald Trump and 18 others were criminally charged</a> in Fulton County, Ga., in connection with efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/14/indictment-document-trump-georgia/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2" target=_blank>The indictment</a> follows a 2½-year investigation by Fulton County District Attorney <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/15/fani-willis-fulton-county-district-attorney/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2" target=_blank>Fani T. Willis</a> (D). Four of Trump’s co-defendants have pleaded guilty.

Smith’s investigation appears to be centered on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/07/trump-classified-documents-fbi-search/" target=_blank>classified material discovered last August at Mar-a-Lago</a>, Trump’s Florida home and private club, weeks after the Justice Department demanded the return of all documents marked classified and a lawyer for Trump handed over documents said to be responsive to that subpoena.

The Washington Post reported last year that among the sensitive documents recovered by the FBI was a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/21/trump-documents-mar-a-lago-iran-china/" target=_blank>document describing Iran’s missile program</a>. It’s unclear if that document is the same one described in the audio recording. The Post has also reported that investigators suspect Trump’s motive for keeping classified material after leaving the White House <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/14/trump-motive-mar-a-lago-documents/" target=_blank>may have been mostly ego</a>, and that he insisted the documents were his property, not the U.S. government’s.

For the Justice Department, evidence that Trump knew he had classified material, and understood the restrictions on sharing it, would be an important part of any charging decision.

A spokesman for Smith declined to comment. A Trump spokesperson replied to an email seeking comment by decrying leaks about the investigation, which he said “are designed to inflame tensions and continue the media’s harassment of President Trump and his supporters.”

In a section of his book, “The Chief’s Chief,” Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, appears to describe the meeting where the recording obtained by the Justice Department was made.

The book mentions Trump discussing a document he tries to link to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/03/mark-milley-january-6-interview/" target=_blank>frequent target of his ire</a> at the time, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Meadows describes a scene at Bedminster in which a relaxed, post-presidency Trump expounds on how he is waiting to re-engage with politics at a time of his choosing.

“The boss leans back in his chair, dressed in a sport coat and a crisp white shirt that’s open at the neck. He looks at least twenty pounds lighter than he was in office,” Meadows’s book says. “The president recalls a four-page report typed up by Mark Milley himself. It contains the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency. President Trump denied those requests every time.”

At that time, Trump complained frequently about Milley, a reaction to anecdotes in books and news articles that cast Trump in a bad light and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/14/peril-woodward-costa-trump-milley-china/" target=_blank>described Milley as defending democracy</a> from the then-president’s darker impulses.

A spokesman for Milley declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Meadows.

Two people familiar with the recorded conversation said Smith’s prosecutors have asked witnesses about Trump’s apparent awareness that the document he was discussing at Bedminster was something sensitive that he could not share or declassify after leaving office.

Milley never recommended attacking Iran, former military officials have said. But people familiar with his briefings to the president said it was customary for the Pentagon to prepare numerous memos outlining various military options to respond to a foreign adversary, and Milley would outline the pros and cons of each option. In discussing options for addressing Iran, the Pentagon did have a memo, which was not authored by Milley, for a military attack on Iran as one conceivable option, these people said.

The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/12/trump-15-boxes/" target=_blank>strange legal and national security saga</a> of how hundreds of classified documents followed Trump to Florida after he left the White House began in 2020, when the National Archives and Records Administration began seeking the return of what it suspected were presidential records — historical documents that are government property.

After months of back-and-forth, 15 boxes of papers from Mar-a-Lago were returned in early 2022. When archives officials opened the boxes, they found more than 100 classified documents scattered among the various items.

That led to questions about whether Trump had more classified papers at his Florida home. Served with the grand jury subpoena in the spring, Trump’s lawyers handed over an additional 38 classified documents in a sealed envelope last June. But FBI agents later obtained evidence suggesting that Trump was holding onto even more documents, leading them to obtain a court order for an Aug. 8 search of the property in which agents found more than 100 classified documents.

In November, after Trump launched another bid for the White House, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith to lead the documents investigation, along with a more sprawling investigation into efforts to block the 2020 election results and events surrounding the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/january-6-capitol-riot/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Jan. 6</a>, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump’s attorneys have taken steps in recent weeks in the documents case — including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/26/trump-letter-classified-documents/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11" target=_blank>outlining his potential defense</a> to members of Congress and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/23/trump-letter-classified-meeting/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11" target=_blank>seeking a meeting with the attorney general</a> — that suggest they believe a charging decision is getting closer.

Over the past week, The Post has reported that investigators have video footage and other evidence that shows two Trump employees at Mar-a-Lago <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/25/trump-classified-documents-mar-a-lago/" target=_blank>moved boxes of documents into a storage area just before </a>Justice Department officials came to retrieve material in response to the subpoena, and that one of the employees later <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/30/trump-mar-a-lago-surveillance-camera/" target=_blank>asked how long material captured by surveillance cameras</a> at the property was kept before being erased.

Perry Stein and Jacqueline Alemany contributed to this report.

Pulitzer Prize co-finalist for Feature Writing, 2017

Pulitzer Prize co-finalist for International Reporting, 2017

Part of team that won Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, 2018

Part of team that won Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, 2022

"October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election"

McGill University, BA 

Devlin Barrett writes about the FBI and the Justice Department, and is the author of "October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election." He was part of reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 and 2022. In 2017 he was a co-finalist for the Pulitzer for Feature Writing and the Pulitzer for International Reporting. 

Devlin Barrett

White House Correspondents Award for Deadline Reporting

University of South Carolina

Josh Dawsey is a political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 2017 and previously covered the White House. Before that, he covered the White House for Politico, and New York City Hall and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the Wall Street Journal.

Josh Dawsey

Bryn Mawr College

Carol Leonnig is an investigative reporter, four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of three best-selling books who has worked at The Washington Post since 2000. 

Carol D. Leonnig

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