On May 31, CNN reported that federal prosecutors investigating the unlawful removal of classified documents from the White House to Donald Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago residence have obtained an audio recording in which the former president acknowledges that he knowingly kept a classified Department of Defense document that contained details about a potential attack on Iran. According to CNN, the tape indicates that Trump \u201cunderstood he retained classified material after leaving the White House.\u201d
Trump\u2019s alleged comments made on the recording have sparked a debate about whether he will be charged with violating 18 U.S.C. 793(e) of the Espionage Act.
What exactly did Trump say on the tape? Did he violate the Espionage Act? How does this change Special Counsel Jack Smith\u2019s investigations? And what does all of this mean for Trump\u2019s reelection campaign? To go over everything that happened, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down for a live recording of the podcast alongside Lawfare Senior Editors Scott R. Anderson, Quinta Jurecic, and Roger Parloff, who unpack all of these questions and more.
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