Former President Donald Trump's purported audio tape on which he bragged about improperly possessing high-level defense information to Bedminster patrons in 2021 was revealed by CNN on Monday evening — revealing damning new details that special counsel Jack Smith had not made public previously.
Speaking to CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, Trump's former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper outlined how serious a breach of national security Trump's behavior was — and beyond that, how dishonestly he was framing the documents he shared, like his claims that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley was the driving force behind a plan to invade Iran.
"Secretary Esper ... given this breaking news and the stunning audio, I wonder what it's like for you to hear your former boss, former commander-in-chief, talking about what we are told are sensitive military documents in this matter?" asked Collins.
"It's stunning to hear it," said Esper, who has himself for years been revealing ugly secrets of what he saw in the Trump administration. "It sounds familiar in some ways. I talk a lot about these instances in my memoir, where I categorize how every few months or so we would come back to this issue about Iran and what to do. I can say Mark Milley worked for me for nearly 18 months, which was most of Trump's tenure that we were together. He never advocated for attacking Iran. If anything, Trevor, Milley, and I were the reluctant warriors urging caution, urging restraint. So, that kind of is what strikes me first. But secondly, it's the nonchalant nature of sharing those documents, is illegal and dangerous. That concerns me as well, that such things were kept loosely around Mar-a-Lago."
"He told Fox, there was no document but referenced newspaper stories, magazine clippings," said Collins. "But it sure doesn't sound like he's talking about just a magazine article there. Is it clear to you? Does it sound to you that he is holding a classified document?"
"Well, it sounds like he's holding something and showing something," said Esper. "I don't know what it was. I think earlier it was reported some time ago that it was a four-page document, which would not have been what DOD typically prepared. What we usually prepare was a one-pager that included targeting options and escalatory measures, things like that. I outlined this in my memoir for everybody. Something like that would be a document that would generate that wow effect, if you were, by people who are unfamiliar with these types of things or classified material."
Watch the segment below or at this link.