In an interview with MSNBC's Alex Witt on Saturday morning, the New York Times' Michael Schmidt reported that former President Donald Trump was insistent that White House aides not take notes in meetings over fears they would come back to haunt him one day.
Appearing to fill in the blanks on his reporting that Trump wanted to use the IRS to harass his purported enemies, Schmidt noted former White House chief of staff John Kelly did keep notes which he handed over to the Department of Justice and that Kelly told him Trump had made it clear he wanted no note taking in meetings.
"Why couldn't he take notes when he was having meetings with Donald Trump? What is that about?" host Witt asked.
"This is something that Trump has said before," Schmidt replied. "He said to his first White House counsel Don McGahn that he did not like lawyers, he likes lawyers that didn't take notes. Trump has repeatedly said to his aides that he does not like it when they document what he says."
"As Kelly says in the sworn statement, Trump said he thought that these could be used against him later on," he added. "As we have seen, Donald Trump's own words have gotten him into trouble. His own words in the audiotape that was part of the indictment that was brought for his mishandling, obstructing and returning classified documents to the government. His own words can be very incriminating to himself and he seems to have had at least some awareness of that by telling Kelly he didn't want him to take notes, and this is something, as I was saying, that he has said to other aides."
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MSNBC 07 08 2023 12 08 10youtu.be
