Donald Trump was indicted on 37 felony counts last week, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, witholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheming to conceal, and making a false statement to federal investigators. That’s quite a list, and more than enough to earn most people many, many decades in federal prison.
However, the most shocking part of the indictment for many people may be the descriptions of incidents in which Trump pulled out classified documents and showed them to people with no clearance while displaying apparent glee over how easily he could violate federal law. That includes when Trump was caught in an audio recording rifling through a “big pile of papers” detailing a potential attack on Iran, and a second incident in which Trump pulled out a map of what was most probably evacuation plans for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
But what may be more amazing than how readily Trump bragged about having these plans to anyone who happened to be in the room is that he lied about them. He lied about the nature of the documents, why he had them, and turned it all into something that the military had tried to force on him … when the truth was exactly the opposite.
The most infamous part of Trump’s recorded conversation at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf facility is surely when he admits the information is highly confidential.
“This is secret information. Look at this! The attack …”
Or when Trump admits that he can’t declassify the information.
“See, as president I could have declassified it, now I can’t, you know, but this is classified.”
Trump repeats this behavior in the second conversation at Bedminster, when he admits to not only showing classified information, but that he’s aware the campaign staffer he’s showing it to lacks any sort of security clearance.
But the other part of the conversation, the way in which Trump frames the documents and how they were given to him, also deserves some attention. Because it’s all a lie.
“Well with Milley, let me see that. I’ll show you an example. He said that I want to attack Iran. Isn’t it amazing, I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him.”
As community member Charles Jay points out, much of what follows appears to be related to the “rage” Trump had toward Gen. Mark Milley. The documents are being produced not just so Trump can brag about holding onto this classified material—though he clearly is bragging about holding onto this classified material—but because he puts it forward as evidence that Milley was trying to convince him to attack Iran.
The audio recording actually begins with Trump and one of his staffers talking about some sort of “coup” that had been conducted against Trump, apparently one in which the military leadership had betrayed him.
Trump: “These are bad, sick people, but—”
Staffer: “That was your coup, you know, against you. That—”
Trump: “Well, it started right at the—”
Staffer: “Like when Milley is talking about ‘oh, you were going to try to do a coup.’ No, they were trying to do that before even you were sworn in.
Writer: “That’s right.”
Staffer: “Trying to overthrow your election.”
Trump: “Well, with Milley … Uh, let me see that. I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran.” [At this point, Trump can be heard digging through papers and opening folders.] “Isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look, this was him. They presented me this. This is off the record, but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”
Writer: “Wow.”
Trump: “We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff, pages long. Look.”
Trump goes on to audibly page through several documents, one of which earns an “oh my gosh” from one of the people in the room. Trump keeps thumbing through, insisting that “this totally wins my case.”
Trump clearly wants to pass this off as some plan to attack Iran, dreamed up by Milley and handed off to him. He’s making a claim that he never wanted to attack Iran. That was the military.
But every aspect of that is a lie.
As journalist Bob Woodward makes clear, the document that Trump is looking at ended up in his hands at his own request.
According to Woodward, it was after Trump had agreed to hand Afghanistan over to the Taliban in February 2020 that he went to the military looking for “what do you have on Iran?”
What they gave him wasn’t a plan of attack, or at least, not just a plan of attack. It was the Iran contingency plan. These documents exist at multiple levels of detail, from an overview of available options down to detailed planning of specific military operations. Contingency plans exist for many if not most nations. They’re always there, frequently updated, and a big part of what all those people in the Pentagon are doing every day.
These plans exist so that should the White House need to respond to a crisis in any part of the world, they’re not starting from a blank sheet of paper. The plans don’t just deal with military invasions. There are contingency plans that cover everything from natural disasters and humanitarian crises to possible economic and diplomatic solutions to a conflict. And there are military plans at almost every level, from invading an enemy in a time of war to assisting an ally fight back an invasion or coup. There are small tactical actions to achieve a specific goal. There are grand strategic visions for taking down whole nations.
These plans exist because they have to exist. Because when the White House is under the gun to respond to something happening in the world, there isn’t time to learn what’s necessary in the short time that may be available. The contingency plan exists to explain what’s possible, and it’s there to provide the White House with flexibility in how it addresses any situation.
When Trump asked what the Defense Department had on Iran, what Milley brought him was not a stack of papers urging Trump to invade, but a set of contingency plans offering him options on how to proceed. And, according to Woodward, Milley had some very strong views about what options should be off the table, including a military invasion of Iran.
For Trump to be claiming that the military tried to force an invasion on him is a lie. It was Trump who wanted some options on Iran. That’s what he got.
As for how highly classified this information may be, Woodward speaks to that as well.
“This is the most sensitive of sensitive documents. And if you go through it you realize that Gen. Milley, and Gen, McKenzie who was the CENTCOM commander in charge of Iran, were going through how do we attack, what would the casualties be, how many ships would be sunk … this is the kind of stuff that is at the top of the top secret chain.”
What makes these documents so classified is exactly that they are so flexible. By their nature, they show the most up-to-date information United States military intelligence has on the capabilities of a foreign nation, but they also include the capabilities of the United States, and of allies and opponents. A battle plan for Iran isn’t going to be limited to a list of what Iran has in their military cabinet. It’s going to include what gear and forces we can get there in a hurry, where and how the U.S. should deploy its forces, what we might expect from allies in the region or outside the region.
How much air support would Russia provide to Iran? Would Saudi Arabia join in an attack? What would North Korea do in response? Does the United States have human resources on the ground? Are there secret agreements in place that would allow basing of troops or overflight by military planes?
It’s no wonder Trump is paging through “a big pile” and bragging about the length of the report. This is a staggering amount of information.
These aren’t toy soldiers moving on a tabletop. A contingency plan includes tactics, threats, assumptions, and the threats such action would generate around the world. Such a plan reveals much more than just how the United States might potentially attack Iran—and the revelation of even that much would be deeply, deeply concerning.
Trump isn’t just showing people classified documents, he’s trying to use classified documents to further a false narrative about Milley and the military that feeds into his whole paranoid platform. Somehow, he thinks that makes things better.
