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'Height of irresponsibility': ex-Trump aide says new audio proves he is lying about docs
June 01, 2023
Former Donald Trump White House adviser Alyssa Farah Griffin tore into her former boss on Thursday for his conduct in the Mar-a-Lago classified document theft investigation.
Trump has long claimed he has blanket declassification authority, but new reports show he was caught on audio discussing a highly classified document laying out an attack plan against Iran, and admitting he doesn't have full authority to declassify military secrets — something that should come as no surprise, Griffin argued, because she saw firsthand that Trump understood this.
"I mean, we talked about the former president wanting to keep documents, or wanting to keep some documents," said anchor Anderson Cooper. "Does it make sense to you what's — what we now learned yesterday?"
"This latest reporting is probably the most damning around the classified documents. I mean, obviously, the former president's argument hinged on this notion of A), he could declassify anything, and that anything he had in his possession has been declassified. But he obviously acknowledges that he knows he simply can't declassify things. There is a process. I've said before when I was serving in the West Wing, there were a number of times he wanted to declassify documents, and he ran through the hoops of trying to do that, talking to his national security adviser, his then-director of national intelligence."
In fact, Griffin continued, "I can think in a number of cases where we weren't able to declassify something because he knows of the hoops he would have to jump through. He knows how the process works."
"What you also can't forget in this — we're not talking about a keepsake like a love letter from Kim Jong-un, as absurd as that sounds," said Griffin. "We're talking about war plans with Iran. Something that is actionable U.S. intelligence that has broad impact that is sitting at a country club in New Jersey. This is the height of irresponsibility, recklessness. And if we have any laws governing how we handle classified documents, this is a rock-solid case."
Watch below or at the following link:
Alyssa Farah Griffin says DOJ has "rock-solid case" on Trump documents www.youtube.com
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Donald Trump's attack on his former press secretary has cost the former president the endorsement of a Republican lawmaker.
New Hampshire Rep. James Spillane, who earlier this year announced his support for Trump in the 2024 presidential race, said Thursday he’s switching sides and backing the former president’s top rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, The New Hampshire Journal reports.
Spillane cited Trump’s Tuesday social media post assailing former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who he accused intentionally reporting inaccurate poll numbers in her roll as a Fox News contributor.
McEnany served as Trump’s top spokesperson for most of the former president’s last year in office and by all accounts was among his most loyal aides before joining the right-wing outlet.
“Kayleigh ‘Milktoast’ McEnany just gave out the wrong poll numbers on FoxNews,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social website.
“I am 34 points up on DeSanctimonious, not 25 up. While 25 is great, it’s not 34. She knew the number was corrected upwards by the group that did the poll. The RINOS & Globalists can have her. FoxNews should only use REAL Stars!!!”
Spillane was on stage with Trump during an April 27 appearance at the Manchester Doubletree when the former president announced that more than 50 New Hampshire GOP House members had endorsed his candidacy.
Spillane cited Trump’s attack on McEnany as the reason for his defection in an interview with the New Hampshire Journal.
He is the fourth New Hampshire state representative to flip on Trump in favor of his top GOP rival in recent weeks, the report said.
IN OTHER NEWS: Trump kept classified documents to help him 'control the narrative': law professor
“I can no longer continue endorsing former President Trump,” Spillane said.
“I am officially withdrawing my endorsement, as his most recent attack on Kayleigh McEnany is beyond comprehension and explanation. Against my deepest hopes that Trump had learned some measure of control, he has attacked those who have been his staunchest supporters with no regard for their loyalty.”.
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Former President Donald Trump's defense that he was allowed to mentally declassify the top-secret documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago has been thrown into chaos by reporting showing that audio tapes exist of Trump telling people he possessed a document showing plans to attack Iran, but didn't have the authority to show it to them.
But more interesting, argued New York University law professor Ryan Goodman, is the reports that Trump apparently wanted to use the document to embarrass Gen. Mark Milley and pin efforts to invade Iran on him.
"There were boxes and boxes of this stuff, storage rooms of this stuff," said anchor Erin Burnett. "Some of it obviously highly classified. We're talking about one document here ... and this is significant because we have Trump on tape talking about it. Its existence and his inability to declassify it which goes against his court event."
"What is the best possible explanation for Trump's motivation in keeping the documents?" asked the host.
IN OTHER NEWS: North Carolina GOP faces backlash after calling local faith leader a ‘poverty pimp’
"So the CNN reporting is in some sense a breakthrough on this particular question, the one that is hanging around that hasn't been answered: what is his motive?" said Goodman. "And here we have him, it seems like, in this situation using them for the motive of his public image. He's trying to control the narrative. There's been a report out that Milley stopped him from potentially attacking Iran in his final days. He says, no, I have the document that counteracts this, and Milley had a plan."
"That's him trying to control the narrative and his image, and that would be a reason to hold on to the documents because he could use them," Goodman continued.
Watch below or at the following link:
Ryan Goodman says Trump wanted to use classified documents to "control the narrative" www.youtube.com
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