CNN report of Trump captured on audio compels DOJ to indict: national security expert

CNN’s exclusive report that federal prosecutors are in possession of an audio recording in which Donald Trump is heard admitting he kept a classified document describing a potential attack on Iran is a “blockbuster” development in the case against the former president, a national security expert said Wednesday.

Trump is heard on the recording suggesting that, although he wishes to share the information, he’s aware that as a former president he can’t declassify them, multiple sources told the cable news channel, indicating he understood he was in possession of classified material.

CNN has not heard the audio.

Former Defense Department special counsel Ryan Goodman tweeted that the revelation likely raises Trump’s “criminal exposure.”

“Audio recording is a meeting with several people who don't have security clearances,” Goodman tweeted.

“If Trump discussed content of document it is even worse - and raises its own criminal exposure. These individuals are all likely good witnesses, with disincentive to lie given their number.”

Special counsel Jack Smith is investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents, some of which the former president brought to his Florida home in Mar-a-Lago after he left office in January, 2021.

Goodman notes that CNN’s report that prosecutors are "are not only looking at Trump’s actions regarding classified documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, but also at what happened at Bedminster" in the summer of 2021.

He writes that the latest revelation is likely to put additional pressure on the Department of Justice to indict the former president, and for a jury to convict him.

“War plans are among the most highly classified documents,” Goodman tweeted.

“Puts pressure on DOJ to indict, and a jury to convict.”

CNN’s report, which states that Trump said he “would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records," in Goodman’s view, “also appears to knock a hole in already very weak (non-defense) defense of declassification.”

Goodman asserted the former president could be facing grave legal jeopardy

“Make no mistake. This is squarely an Espionage Act case. It is not simply an ‘obstruction’ case,” Goodman wrote.

“There is now every reason to expect former President Trump will be charged under 18 USC 793(e) of the Espionage Act.

“The law fits his reported conduct like a hand in glove.”