Some important breaking and exclusive news.
CNN reporting
about the special counsel investigation and that audio recording of the former
president, Donald Trump.
Sources now telling CNN the Trump attorneys turned over material
in mid-March,
two and a half months ago
in mid-March, connected to a classified military document.
The one prostitute prosecutors here Mr.
Trump describe on that audio recording now in their possession.
That tape prompting a fresh subpoena from special counsel
Jack Smith's investigators for any and all documents related to Mark Milley,
General Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs chair or Iran.
Sources telling CNN there's also a big unknown whether that document in question,
an Iran attack plan was ever actually returned to the government.
Let's break down this important reporting.
Beginning with the team behind it.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins joins us from New York.
CNN's Paula Reid is here with me in Washington,
along with the former federal prosecutor, Eliot Williams.
Kaitlan Collins, let me start with you.
And I just want to go through a little bit of the timeline.
We reported yesterday.
The prosecutors have this audio recording of Donald Trump talking
about having a classified document, saying on that audio recording
that he wishes he could share it, but he knows he can't, which is important.
Now, in this new reporting, you and your colleagues, number one,
there's a Trump aide, Margot Martin, who goes before the grand jury.
When she goes before the grand jury, they have an audio recording.
And after her testimony, they send a subpoena to Trump attorneys.
Walk us through the significance of this.
Yeah.
So Margot Martin, who is a former
White House press aide who followed Trump and works in his post-presidency office
down in Mar-A-Lago, went before investigators back in mid-March.
She was there when she testified.
They played this audio recording that we broke the reporting on for her.
We are told that shortly after she left that that is and prosecutors
sent a subpoena asking for any and all documents related to General Mark Milley,
who is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and Iran they were seeking any of these documents.
But I'm told it was also made clear to the Trump legal team that prosecutors
specifically wanted the document that Trump references.
All that audio recording we know that documents that document
is related to Iran.
We know that it is also related to General Milley.
That's what Trump indicated
in that audio recording, that prosecutors now have in their possession.
But here's what's key here.
I am told that Trump's attorneys were unable to find this document.
They turned over some material to related to this federal subpoena
that they got seeking this information related to Iran and General Mark Milley.
But the document itself that Trump references on that audio
recording, they were unable to provide to the federal government.
So, of course,
that has raised a lot of questions about that document in and of itself.
When I asked Jim Trustee Trump's attorney about this
the other night, whether or not that document
had been returned to the National Archives, he declined to say,
and he also declined to tell Abby Phillip whether or not it had been declassified.
But it does speak to the level
of difficulty that the government has had in getting these documents back.
I mean, we've seen how this fight has played out
where they turned over boxes of documents.
Then the search warrant was, of course, executed at Mar a Lago.
Where they brought more documents back to the federal government.
But it's this document specifically that I am told they were seeking after Margot
Martin came before the the before the investigators back in mid-March,
they turned over other stuff,
but they could not locate this document itself to turn over.
Caitlin, stand by.
So, Paula, we go back to this timeline.
I want to do it with as much specificity as we can.
Number one, the Trump aide goes before the grand jury.
Number two, shortly thereafter.
Your reporting is very quickly thereafter. They issued a subpoena.
And then there is a forgive my language for people at home, sort of a holy moment
among all the attorneys
because the Trump legal team, again, blindsided by something.
Sure.
Very shortly after Margaret Martin and her attorney left the courthouse,
one of Trump's attorneys received a subpoena for any
and all materials related to Iran and or General million.
Initially, there was a little bit of confusion.
Wait, why are they asking for this specifically?
And then shortly thereafter, they were able to kind of figure out
what had happened.
Margaux had been asked about this and it was surprising to me to learn from
our sources that this was the first time we're told that the legal team
heard anything about this recording or about this specific meeting.
So they tried to comply with the subpoena.
We're told they went they spoke to aides.
They got some transcripts, other materials
that were responsive to the specific requests from the Justice Department.
But they were not able to find this document.
And at this point, it is unclear if the government has it.
Now, I will note that, of course,
the Trump team did give 15 boxes of materials to the archives.
They've said in a letter to Congress
that they did not go through those before they sent them to the archives.
And also, of course, the FBI search Mar a Lago and took some classified documents.
Now, you would think that the government already had it.
They wouldn't ask for it again.
But at this point, we know the Trump team could not find it, and it's unclear
if the government has this.
And Caitlin Collins, before this new wave of reporting,
the additional reporting last night at a town hall with Sean Hannity,
Trump was asked about the CNN reporting just about the audiotape this was
his answer
I don't know anything about it.
Well, you know, as this everything I did was right.
We have the Presidential Records Act, which I abided by 100%.
It's a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.
It's a hoax.
And it has to do
it has to do
more than anything else with trying to interfere with the election.
I'll come back to this point a little bit later.
Let me make it quickly now.
You asked a much more specific
and smarter questions when you had him in the town hall.
We will get to some of that and the significance of it,
actually the very important significance at the moment.
But the question is Trump says he doesn't know anything about it.
From our reporting, where's the document?
Does anybody know?
It's a good question.
What we do know about the document itself is that it is related to Iran.
We are told when we were first reporting on this
that it actually wasn't something that was produced by General Milley.
The dates on it predated when he became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
something I should note. He was picked by Trump to do that job.
He became that in 2019.
So it was before that that this document was created.
We are told but Trump was essentially using it to say that it would undermine
and undercut what Milley was saying in reporting
about him for the document itself.
That's a good question.
I mean, what we do know is
the prosecutors wanted this specific document themselves.
Of course, the question is whether it's to fingerprint it, what to do with it.
It's not totally clear.
I should also note, the more reporting we've asked a lot of people
when Trump was in that summer, 20, 20 and 20, 21 meeting,
did he actually have the document in his hand, as you could hear it
being rustled around some paper in that audio,
or was he simply referencing this document?
Those have been questions that we've asked his attorneys.
They have not offered specifics on that.
And so I do think that is a big question, because clearly what prosecutors wanted
here was seeking the document that Trump believed he had in his possession.
They wanted to have their own hands on it.
Now, they could certainly have copies of it from the Pentagon.
That's something that is still also remained unclear.
But what is clear is that Trump's attorneys
went and looked for this document because they knew
prosecutors were looking for it,
but they weren't able able to find it, to turn it over to them.
That comes after they turned over 15 boxes in the first tranche that was sent back.
That comes after the search warrant happened.
And they took hundreds of documents then.
They still were unable to find this document specifically,
which we know had been taken to Bedminster,
where we believe had been taken to Bedminster,
because Trump was referencing it in that Bedminster meeting.
That's his New Jersey club.
And so there are still big questions of where this document is today.
When we've asked Trump's attorneys,
has this specific one been returned to the National Archives?
They declined to answer.
And so, again,
we have come to you in a second just to give us but
I just want to stick with this important
reporting in the sense of what we know and what we don't know,
because that's part of the building of this.
So we talk about we talk about this specific document still remains a mystery.
But when you listen to everything you're reporting today
and in the additional reporting about they have the recording,
they bring in the Trump media aide who was in the room in Bedminster
when all of this happened.
There may be some open questions for prosecutors, but it is clear
that they are methodically compiling audio evidence who was in the room.
They are documenting this in a pretty methodical way.
Absolutely.
And we know that this audio recording has been a focus
for the Justice Department in recent months.
But over the course of this entire investigation,
the Justice Department has repeatedly expressed skepticism
about whether the former president and his team have turned over
all of the classified materials
and that has turned out to be a well-founded concerns.
It's of course, they asked for the materials to be turned over.
They met with Trump attorneys and the FBI did a search of Mar a Lago.
Then there were subsequent hearings discussing the need
for additional searches, which were conducted by investigators
hired by the Trump team, some additional documents it did turn up.
I'll also note that one of Trump's now former attorneys, Tim
Barletta, did say that he got some resistance
to the idea of doing that subsequent search of Bedminster late last year.
And there's a question about whether this document, this recording,
whether that was part of the reason there was resistance.
But at this point, again, we don't know where the document is.
All right.
Elliot Williams, there have been very patient. Thank you.
Put yourself in the prosecutor's war
room, essentially, and you're building your case.
And all the evidence we just went through, including this new reporting
that not only did they have the audiotape, but they had an aide come in
and testify before the grand jury who was in the room when it was made.
They immediately issue a subpoena.
Then in mid-March of this year, remember, the Trump people said a long time ago
they had returned all the documents in mid-March of this year.
They're getting new documents.
They might not all be classified documents.
They could be just simply related to the subpoena.
But what does that tell you?
Yeah, it's a couple of things.
Number one,
to back up Paul's point, they are building you got to have the person to testify
about it.
The person who testified about the evidence
and also the video evidence and someone to authenticate the video.
That's just sort of the nuts and bolts of prosecuting.
What we're not talking about, that was the substance of the document,
which is itself relevant to at least one criminal statute.
When you mishandle, possess or transfer information
related to the national defense
or that you believe could be used to the injury of the United States,
that's itself a federal crime, regardless of whether the documents
also been declassified or not.
And I think the president's not getting this point that maybe you declassified it.
Sure you did.
But it's still a defense document
and that under one of the statutes that they are investigating is itself a.