on the bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending so the nation averts a default next week. president biden and speaker mccarthy are defending the agreement as some of their parties are also railing against it. we ll bring you the results of that vote as soon as it happens. but first, to a cnn exclusive tonight. reporting the federal prosecutors have donald trump on tape in his own words acknowledging that he took a sensitive national security document with him when he left the white house. that is what multiple sources tell cnn. and i ll speak with one of the former president s attorneys in just a moment. but we are told that trump s comments in the 2021 recording suggest that he knew that he kept classified material and wanted to share it, but understood his limitations post presidency. in other words, he knew that this was likely false when he said it. by the way, they become automatically declassified when i took them. and the same goes for this. i
to the effect of, you know, if i can show you this if you undermine these arguments. but making clear that he doesn t believe he can show it to them. and i think that is a key part of the story. it s very much is. the other part is that this really gives us one of the first indications of what else might be here. it is not just letters from kim jong-un, what do we know based on your reporting about the military significance of the documents that we are talking about. right, that has kind of been the dispute over was a classified, was not classified. this is a plan that we are told was essentially about potentially striking a run. obviously the u.s. is a lot of plans for the pentagon, backup pans, in case of emergency. and that is what we are told this was. that he was referencing. trying to say, essentially, but it was something that general milley had prepared for him. obviously milley is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. we are told actually that this was not a
this was that he was referencing, trying to say essentially that it was something that general milley had prepared for him. obviously milley is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. we re told this is actually not a document that was produced by milley, but it s something that was clearly at the heart of a national security issue. and the fact that milley has now spoken to investigators in this situation, which i am told happened recently, also speaks to the significance of the way that jack smith and his team are treating this. because milley would be one of the highest ranking, if not maybe the highest ranking national security official that we know has gone and spoken to investigators here. this episode has generated a lot of interest. the other thing we re told is the people who were in the room did not have national security clearances and an ability to be able to see what this information was. i want to note one other caveat, abby, that is really important, we don t know for
milley had prepared for him. obviously milley is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. we are told actually that this was not a document that was produced by milley. but it is something that was clearly at the heart of a national security issue. and the fact that has now spoken to investigators in this situation, which i am told happened recently. it also speaks to the significance of the way that jack smith and his team are shooting. this because really would be one of the highest ranking if not maybe the highest ranking national security official that we know it is speaking to investigators. here so this episode is generating a lot of interest. and i should note, the other thing we are told is that people who were in the room did not have national security clearances in an ability to be able to see with this information was. i want to know one of their caveats that is really important. which is that we don t know for sure that it was the actual document that he had in his hand.
retained classified information long after he left office. but also had an acknowledgment that he could not declassify things in this post presidency period. as you have noted that he has claimed many times as this investigation has gone on. and as he has been asked questions about this. and that has been the main defenses that we have heard from the former president and his legal team about this. which is why they ve said they don t believe he is facing any legal trouble in this investigation. now it seems that that has changed potentially here. because we do have a source that tells us that they believe this is important piece of inference that jack smith s team now has in their hands. and the way this all got started was at a meeting in the summer of 2021. trump is that bedminster. so not mar-a-lago where the rate happens. where the search warrant was executed for those documents. but he is angry about the story. it has been published in the new yorker, talking about general milley