The irrelevancy of the CNN tape of Trump implying a document is classified

American Thinker ^ | 06/27/2023 | Andrea Widburg

[SeekAndFind]

Leftists and others who dislike Trump are delighted with the news that the Justice Department leaked an audio tape in which Trump is recorded saying that he has a “highly confidential” document that he then allegedly shows someone.

In fact, I would argue that, whether looked at through the filter of substantive law, Trump’s personality, or inadmissible evidence, it’s a completely useless revelation—although everyone in the Justice Department connected to the leak should be summarily fired and then prosecuted.

Politico describes what can be heard on the tape:

In the two-minute recording, Trump can be heard stating, “these are the papers” while referring to something he calls “highly confidential.”

“This was done by the military and given to me,” Trump said in the recording. “See as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

Trump describes his “big pile of paper” to people in the room and says, “Isn’t it amazing?  … They presented me this — this is off the record.”

The tape, first obtained by CNN, comes from a July 2021 meeting at Trump’s Bedminster, N.J., golf club.

The implication that Trump had super-secret classified documents is just wrong. Robert Turner wrote a brilliant, erudite analysis of the foundational history of an American president’s absolute power over national security matters. My take moves the analysis to the modern era, but the combined effect is the same: the president makes the calls about what must be kept secret.

Where Prof. Turner and I differ is our take on the effect of this recording. I contend that once Trump walked the documents out of the White House, he lowered or erased their security status entirely. Regardless of what he said after the fact, their changed status was a fait accompli.

[SeekAndFind]

AUTHOR ARGUES:

In the advertising world, puffery is exaggerated language that is legal in a way that lies would not be. The FTC, therefore, “generally will not pursue obviously exaggerated or puffing representations, i.e., those that the ordinary consumers do not take seriously.”

Trump exists in a world of verbal puffery. Everything he does is bigger, better, faster, stronger… What he does will be yuuuge and beee-yu-tiful. His phone calls are “perfect,” and his policies are always the best. It’s this kind of language that led Selina Zito to write so elegantly that “the press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” In other words, Trump’s supporters have the intelligence to separate substantive wheat from frilly, overwrought verbal chaff.

So, when Trump boasts to someone that a document is super-duper special and secret, only someone very credulous would take him seriously. If he had it in his hand after having left the White House, he had de facto declassified it, and everything else he said was boastfulness.

[Sarah Barracuda]

Trump told Bret Baier the truth, they were NEVER any documents it was newspaper clippings and magazine articles that is why no one can find this supposed document, it never existed

[enumerated]

This is Trump trolling the fake news. He makes fools of them.

[AndyTheBear]

Thought I just read from Conservative Treehouse story that CBS was reporting that it turned the the “papers” were news papers rather than government documents. Read in that context Trump was talking about the news papers printing something they perhaps should not have.

[thegagline]

inadmissible evidence

Admissions against self-interest are admissible. In this case, it establishes elements to count 37 of the Indictment re: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001(a)(2), 2. It is also speaks to Counts 32-36.

[PrairieLady2]

+100

[Berlin_Freeper]

Trump was making jokes about news articles.

[windsorknot]

Trump was making jokes about news articles.

And the sarcasm is palpable.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Another win for Trump!

[Brian Griffin]

“New IDF intel unit preparing for possible Israel-Iran war”

“Every day we gather more targets and objectives at a satisfying pace and learn how to strike them effectively. We have already doubled the target bank in Iran.”

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sjkrobxp3

“It is the early stages of enrichment that consume the most energy and the process becomes easier down the line. Industry data shows that more than half of the effort needed to enrich uranium to 90% is spent getting from 0.7% to 4%. When enrichment reaches 20%, the threshold for what counts as “highly enriched uranium”, and a level Iran has produced at Natanz in the past, about 90% of the work towards weapons-grade uranium is done.”

“The process gets easier because less material has to be moved around at higher levels of enrichment. A plant that enriches uranium to 4% with 5,000 centrifuges may need only 1,500 to reach 20% enrichment. From there, several hundred centrifuges are sufficient to reach the 90% needed for a nuclear bomb.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/07/iran-uranium-enrichment-programme-the-science-explained

[Brian Griffin]

“it never existed”

Each White House secure document safe should have a document sign-in/sign-out log book.

[chopperk]

Read and listened to the tape twice and it is a major stretch of the imagination to think it is relevant.

[unclebankster]

Trump was making jokes about news articles.

***********

Liberals don’t get jokes or sarcasm. They’re so serious about everything.

[Bratch]

CBS Report, Mysterious DoD Iran Attack Memo Does Not Exist and Is Not Part of Jack Smith Case Against Trump

June 27, 2023 | Sundance | 157 Comments

I’m not going to say I toldyaso; I’m just smiling.

After a full media cycle of apoplexy and pearl-clutching, which included Andrew Weissmann appearing on MSNBC to declare “It’s the end of Trump,” CBS is now reporting there is no Defense Department memo about attacking Iran – the foundation of the media claims surrounding the leaked audio tapes from Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Worse still, and exactly as CTH previously outlined, despite the claims by CNN about how this audio would be used as the “central element” by the prosecution of Trump, the audio and mysterious memo are not part of the Special Counsel case.

So, why was the transcript of the audio recording used by Jack Smith in the indictment if the audio and nonexistent memo were never going to be used?  Because it’s Lawfare, that’s why.  Everything, yes including the specific language being deployed (ie “documents containing classification markings“), is hype for public consumption.

(Via CBS) – The Defense Department memo on Iran — at the heart of the now-public audio recording that captured a July 2021 meeting with former President Donald Trump — is not part of the 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information charged in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of the former president, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. 

[…] The document and recording are described in the indictment Smith’s team secured against Trump earlier this month, recounted as an alleged meeting with “a writer, a publisher, and two members of” Trump’s staff, “none of whom possessed a security clearance.”  But according to a source familiar with the matter, Trump was not charged with unlawfully holding onto the Iran-related document discussed in the recording.

[…] Multiple sources familiar with the investigation previously told CBS News that defense attorneys were not certain the Iran memo in question was ever recovered and returned to the government. (read more)

There never was an Iran memo document.   President Trump was discussing newspaper reports, “newspapers” and stacks of “papers”, as he originally told Brett Baier. Duh.

Reminder, in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on June 19, Trump said that at the meeting with the book’s publisher, he was not referring to the document itself, but newspaper articles:

“There was no document… That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things. And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”

Joni Job Tweet:

Watch til the end... very important. There is NO IRAN DOCUMENT!

Trump was showing newspaper and magazine articles.

Jack Smith is going to have to produce this document, he can't, and

he's scared shitless, so he leaked the audio tapes.

WE WILL ALL GET TO SEE SMITH'S DOCUMENTS!

[Baldwin77]

No where in the recording does he say, “these are the papers”. No where. He does say, “let me see them” making the case that someone in the room already had some papers.

No where does he say “CLASSIFIED” - he says they are confidential.

He was joking about I could have declassified them - they all were laughing.

[Baldwin77]

Saying a conversation is “off the record” is illegal? Who knew.

[Baldwin77]

Wrong. There is no document in the indictment connected to the conversation. Not evidence of anything in this case.

[mlitefan]

Admissions against self-interest are admissible. In this case, it establishes elements to count 37 of the Indictment re: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001(a)(2), 2. It is also speaks to Counts 32-36.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trump To the media...”Man I killed John Smith”

Media...”call the police, this man killed someone.”

Police to the media....”Um...we are talking to John Smith right now. He is very much alive”

Anti Trumpers...”he still needs to be put in jail for saying he killed him.”

Trump to anti Trumpers...”I killed him yesterday at a round of golf. He stinks at golf”

Yeah, pretty much the story here. But do carry on...

[Revolutionary]

Trump was referring to the document that someone (Millie?) leaked to the media. It was in articles. Not his hand. No document, no case.