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‘It was bravado’: Trump says he wasn’t holding up classified documents in 2021 meeting
Semafor ^ | 06/27/2023 | Shelby Talcott

Posted on 06/27/2023 11:08:09 PM PDT by thegagline

Former President Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday that he was not showing off classified documents in an audio clip first published by CNN in which he referred to “highly confidential” material and “secret information” that he could no longer declassify.

“I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth, it was bravado,” Trump said in an interview aboard his plane with Semafor and ABC News. “I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.”

The latest comments suggested a new potential legal argument from the former president: That he was overselling the material he was showing to an aide and people working on a biography of former chief of staff Mark Meadows in the recording, a transcript of which featured heavily in his recent federal indictment.

“I just held up a whole pile of — my desk is loaded up with papers. I have papers from 25 different things,” he said, adding he kept relevant news articles about topics like Iran on hand.

At one point, Trump gestured to the seat next to him on the plane, where a stack of various papers — newspapers, copies of his speech, printouts of articles — sat. He grabbed some from the pile and placed them in front of him, moving them around as he spoke and offering up a physical reenactment of what he said was occurring on the audio tape.

Asked about his use of the word “plans” during a Fox News interview earlier Tuesday to describe some items he may have highlighted in the 2021 meeting, Trump insisted he was referring to “building plans” and plans for golf courses strewn about his desk.

“Did I use the word plans?” he said. “What I’m referring to is magazines, newspapers, plans of buildings. I had plans of buildings. You know, building plans? I had plans of a golf course.”

Asked if he had any regrets about his handling of classified documents, Trump said he did not.

“No, I have no regrets,” he said. “I didn't have a classified document. There was no classified document on my desk.”***


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bravado; bushcrimefamily; classified; crime; fag; fakenews; frtdstrolls; gobacktodu; hmmm; nevertrumper; tdsclownsoffr; thefagline; trump; votedforclinton
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That is some authentic frontier shucking and jiving.
1 posted on 06/27/2023 11:08:09 PM PDT by thegagline
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To: thegagline

He has long been identified by the media as someone who brags, boasts and exaggerates. Now let him get a benefit from it.


2 posted on 06/27/2023 11:20:47 PM PDT by frank ballenger (You have summoned up a thundercloud. You're gonna hear from me. Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
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To: thegagline

Didn’t you get the memo? The DOJ has admitted there were no classified documents in that meeting. That’s why there were no charges related to that story in the indictment. The leak was to make ppl think he’d done something nefarious and illegal, but in reality they made it all up in hopes that the gullible Trump haters would fall for it. And you did! 🤣


3 posted on 06/27/2023 11:25:50 PM PDT by Prince of Space (Trump 2024!)
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To: frank ballenger; thegagline

This made me smile. So, he held up some papers and they believed him that he was holding up classified documents. But now, he said that the documents weren’t classified. But will they believe THAT now? If not, then they have to prove that he was telling the truth the first time, and they have to identify which documents were classified. If they can’t prove that he was telling the truth, they lose bigly. Bear trap.


4 posted on 06/27/2023 11:27:09 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: thegagline

5 posted on 06/27/2023 11:29:21 PM PDT by windsorknot
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To: frank ballenger
He has long been identified by the media as someone who brags, boasts and exaggerates. Now let him get a benefit from it.

“Who knows himself a braggart, let him fear this, for it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass.” Alls well that ends well

6 posted on 06/27/2023 11:42:18 PM PDT by thegagline (Sic semper tyrannis! Goldwater in 2024)
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To: Prince of Space
The DOJ has admitted there were no classified documents in that meeting.

That's not true. The DOJ was not at the meeting and has no idea what material was present. If there were classified docs as Trump implied, the DOJ does not have them. They are doing this to portray Trump as a loose cannon who was disclosing national secrets. If the Judge allows this recording at the trial, they will play the tape where Trump implies the disclosure of classified material. Trump and his attorneys will have the opportunity to say there was no classified material, it was just bravado. It's an easy sell here at FR, but a much tougher sell to a jury.

7 posted on 06/27/2023 11:47:26 PM PDT by ETCM (“There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.” — Ronald Reagan)
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To: ETCM
Trump and his attorneys will have the opportunity to say there was no classified material, it was just bravado. It's an easy sell here at FR, but a much tougher sell to a jury.

It's strange and sad how bravado and sarcasm are subtleties that are (currently) lost to or wasted on the general population. Is it a sign that the general population is getting seriously dumbed down? Humor and irony need an audience with a shared sense of history and cultural context for them to make any sort of sense. A joke isn't funny if you have to stop and patiently explain it. Whoooosh.

8 posted on 06/28/2023 12:03:19 AM PDT by thecodont
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To: thegagline

Bravado. I like that. Nice spin.

A lot better than to say he was lying.


9 posted on 06/28/2023 12:11:44 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: ETCM

https://www.reuters.com/article/iran/obama-says-risky-to-attack-iran-wants-diplomatic-fix-idINDEE81406Y20120206


10 posted on 06/28/2023 12:20:49 AM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: thegagline

ok, that just makes him look stupid.

“bravado”?

Bravado to claim to have classified documents in your personal possession AFTER you have to have relinquished access to them??

That seems so stupid to say


11 posted on 06/28/2023 12:22:26 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: thecodont; ETCM

Trumps “admission of guilt” within that audio would have been very damaging to him at trial. If it were true. If in fact Smith had those documents that Trump was boasting about.

But because that audio was full of “bravado” Smith figured he could leak it to CNN and try to create damage to Trump in the court of public opinion.

Did it work? Do people still think Trump boasted about having classified documents? Probably.


12 posted on 06/28/2023 12:22:41 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: Enterprise
I'm sorry, but it doesn't make me smile “I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth, it was bravado,” Trump said in an interview aboard his plane with Semafor and ABC News. “I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.” -- he is saying he was lying that he had confidential documents
13 posted on 06/28/2023 12:25:55 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Responsibility2nd
But because that audio was full of “bravado” Smith figured he could leak it to CNN and try to create damage to Trump in the court of public opinion.

He very well might have leaked it because he thinks it might not be allowed by the judge. Now any potential jurors have heard it.

14 posted on 06/28/2023 12:37:21 AM PDT by ETCM (“There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.” — Ronald Reagan)
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To: thegagline

27 June: ConservativeTreehouse: CBS Report, Mysterious DoD Iran Attack Memo Does Not Exist and Is Not Part of Jack Smith Case Against Trump
by Sundance
(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...

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...
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/06/27/cbs-report-mysterious-dod-iran-attack-memo-does-not-exist-and-is-not-part-of-jack-smith-case-against-trump/


15 posted on 06/28/2023 12:41:25 AM PDT by MAGAthon
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To: frank ballenger

This has to be driving the Marxist Dems crazy .


16 posted on 06/28/2023 12:41:39 AM PDT by chopperk ( C)
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To: thegagline

I know more top secret information about USN nuclear submarines than he probably knows or cares about. Leftist are assholes and TDS victims can KM veterans A. Ya’all have a nice nite.


17 posted on 06/28/2023 12:46:53 AM PDT by Equine1952
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To: thegagline

All well and good for those of us who read a lot of articles about Trump, but a lot of voters aren’t political junkies and only hear or read what the MSM decides to either mention in passing for a few seconds or exploit at every opportunity through every mouthpiece available umpteen times a day.


18 posted on 06/28/2023 12:54:27 AM PDT by skr (Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. - Proverbs 14:34)
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To: Cronos

No - you’re missing the point… he is toying with his accusers and making a mess of their bogus “case” against him.

Think about it.

He allows himself to be recorded holding up some papers and referring to them as classified documents he is not supposed to have. Why would he do that?

I can think of three scenarios:

1) They were indeed classified and he is so stupid as to prove his own guilt.
2) They were not classified and he was bragging as he said.
3) They were not classified but he wanted his accusers to chase another false story and look like utter fools when it was so easily debunked.

We can rule out 1) because he’s not stupid.
We can rule out 2) because anyone who’s been Commander in Chief does not need to brag about classifieds documents.

Obviously it was 3) - he trolled them into over-reacting - the entire MSM and deep state were salivating over this for days, only to have Trump pop their balloon by saying they were just newsmakers.

You know what this demonstrates to the public? It demonstrates that they have nothing on him - they have so little that by making one statement, he can have them grasping gat straws - dancing like puppets on a string - and then with another statement he can blow the whole thing up and make them look like idiots.

Hahahahaha - he cracks me up the way he plays them like a fiddle


19 posted on 06/28/2023 1:02:30 AM PDT by enumerated (81 million votes my ass)
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To: thecodont

It’s strange and sad how bravado and sarcasm are subtleties that are (currently) lost to or wasted on the general population. Is it a sign that the general population is getting seriously dumbed down? Humor and irony need an audience with a shared sense of history and cultural context for them to make any sort of sense. A joke isn’t funny if you have to stop and patiently explain it. Whoooosh.

*************

Anti Trump partisans have already shown over & over again that they’re morons who lack a sense of humor.

“I could shoot somebody on 5th avenue & not lose voters.”

The democrats actually used this one in a court case during the Trump Presidency.

“Russia are you listening, the press will reward you for the missing emails.”

Democrats scream treason.

Now the idiocy is involving courts and the same idiots take the same bait, again.

“Silly Rabbits.”


20 posted on 06/28/2023 1:04:39 AM PDT by unclebankster ( Globalism is the last refuge of a scoundrel)
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