Former President Donald Trump reportedly shared classified information related to the United States’ nuclear submarines with an Australian businessman during a meeting at Trump’s private club and residence in Florida that took place shortly after he left the White House.
New York Times quoted two people privy to the matter as saying that the former president had this conversation with the businessman at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.
The businessman, Anthony Pratt, is a member of the club and also heads one of the world’s largest cardboard companies. According to the people who made these claims, Pratt shared this sensitive information about the submarines with many others. Trump’s action can potentially pose a threat to the U.S. nuclear fleet, the people added.
According to the witnesses, federal prosecutors who are assisting the special counsel, Jack Smith, found out about Trump’s act of sharing the secrets with Pratt, when it was first reported by ABC News. Following this, the federal prosecutors interviewed him while probing the former president’s handling of these documents.
Another person aware of the details claims that Pratt is now among over 80 people whom prosecutors think could be possible witnesses against Trump at the classified documents trial, which will begin in May in Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida.
The indictment alleging that Trump illegally held on to about three dozen classified documents after leaving office, and then conspired with two of his aides at Mar-a-Lago to stop the government from getting them back, does not include Pratt’s name.
The new revelation could help the prosecutors’ case by strengthening the impression that the former president had been irresponsible when it came to the handling of sensitive information.
In August 2022, the F.B.I. conducted a search operation at the Mar-a-Lago, seizing over 100 documents that contained national security secrets, some of which bore the country’s most sensitive classification marking.
