Ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reportedly wrote in a draft of his memoir that his old boss, former President Donald Trump, left a top secret Iran war plan on a couch at his New Jersey golf resort during an interview with a ghost writer.
Meadows told prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s team that he heard about the shocking incident by the writer and a publicist but soft-pedaled it in the final published version of his book because it could be “problematic” for Trump, ABC News reported.
“On the couch in front of (Trump’s) desk, there’s a four-page report typed up by (Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley) himself,” the draft read, according to ABC. “It shows the general’s own plan to attack Iran, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency.”
EXCLUSIVE: Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told special counsel investigators that he could not recall former Pres. Trump ever declassifying Mar-a-Lago documents, sources familiar with the matter tell @ABC News. @JonKarl reports: https://t.co/4KgVg19E4Z pic.twitter.com/WOwpY4ztsD
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 20, 2023
Trump has been charged with improperly showing the document to the underlings as part of a superseding indictment to the classified documents case.
He was already charged with mishandling dozens of documents that he took with him when he left the White House and defying official efforts to get them back.
Trump allegedly brought the Iran war plan to New Jersey and whipped it out to show the underlings during an interview in summer 2021 as Meadows collected material for his book, “The Chief’s Chief.”
Considering it important ammunition in his odd feud with Milley, Trump was already accused of boasting to the aides that the document proved his point that Milley was a warmonger.
In so doing, Trump admitted that the document remained classified and that he shouldn’t be showing it, effectively contradicting his own oft-repeated claims he had declassified all the documents.
“It is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information,” Trump said, according to an audiotape of the meeting. “Look, look at this. This was done by the military and given to me. As president I could have declassified, but now I can’t.”
The new bombshell suggests Trump was even more reckless than previously known with the secret plan, which would be of immeasurable value to geopolitical enemies or the U.S. as well as Iran-hating allies like Israel and particularly Saudi Arabia.
Meadows told prosecutors that Trump never told him he had declassified large numbers of secret documents, contradicting his former boss’ claims about the documents. He also shot down the outlandish claim that Trump had a so-called “standing order” to declassify any documents he took away from the White House.
The report did not clear up uncertainty about Meadows’ role in the various prosecutions of Trump.
Meadows has not been charged in the Mar-a-Lago documents case or the federal Jan. 6 case despite being Trump’s top lieutenant. Smith did not name Meadows as an unindicted co-conspirator in the election case, raising suspicions he had cut some kind of deal to avoid prosecution.
Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara tells @JonKarl that former chief of staff Mark Meadows’ testimony to special counsel investigators “undercuts” former Pres. Trump’s "laughable" theory that he could "telepathically or automatically declassify something.” https://t.co/CL1adYkMwd pic.twitter.com/OMdtHlWeiS
— ABC News (@ABC) August 20, 2023
But the former North Carolina congressman was charged last week as one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case, which has been charged under the state’s potent racketeering law.
He has asked a judge to move his case to federal court or dismiss it altogether, asserting that he was performing the duties of his federal job when he allegedly helped Trump overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the Peach State.
