Former President Donald Trump, months after leaving the White House, discussed potentially sensitive information about the United States' fleet of nuclear submarines with an Australian billionaire and member of Trump's club Mar-a-Lago, ABC News reported Thursday.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who brought an indictment against Trump in the classified documents case in Florida, was made aware that Trump allegedly had conversations with Anthony Pratt, who owns U.S.-based Pratt Industries, in April 2021, according to ABC News.
Pratt then went on to relay Trump's remarks about the subs to 45 other people, including six journalists, 10 Australian officials, and nearly a dozen of his own employees, ABC reported.
Trump relayed two pieces of information about the subs to Pratt, according to ABC News: "The supposed exact number of nuclear warheads they routinely carry, and exactly how close they supposedly can get to a Russian submarine without being detected," the ABC report said.
Smith investigated the claims but did not include any of them in the documents indictment handed down in June. Pratt insisted, however, that at no time did Trump show him any classified docs, according to the report.
Trump faces a 40-count indictment of unlawful retention of national defense documents and obstruction.
Australia earlier this year purchased at least three nuclear-power submarines, a deal brokered by some of the Australian officials Pratt spoke to about Trump's information, ABC News reported. None of the subs sold to Australia, however, will be armed with nukes, President Joe Biden has said.
The report comes the day after Trump's legal team asked the Florida judge set to preside over that case, Aileen Cannon, to postpone the trial until after the 2024 general election in November. As it stands, the case is set to go to trial May 20, 2024, in Florida.
Trump attorneys said in a motion that they have not received all the records necessary to prepare his defense.
"The Special Counsel's Office has not provided some of the most basic discovery in the case," said the motion. "Given the current schedule, we cannot understate the prejudice to President Trump arising from his lack of access to these critical materials months after they should have been produced."
Trump is facing four criminal trials, and his civil fraud trial in New York is underway.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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