Former President Donald Trump.
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Donald Trump was indicted on 40 charges related to his handling of classified documents.Trump also may have shared highly sensitive details with an Australian billionaire, per ABC News.One of the details revolved around the number of nuclear warheads US submarines can carry.
Donald Trump didn’t just have an issue with taking classified documents home, as the Justice Department has alleged in its recent indictment. He also may have had a problem keeping potentially sensitive military matters to himself.
After Trump left office, Australian billionaire and Mar-a-Lago Club member Anthony Pratt alleged in interviews with federal investigators that the former president disclosed details to him about US nuclear submarines around April 2021, anonymous sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The sources said Pratt then went on to share that information with more than a dozen foreign officials, some of his employees, and journalists.
A Trump spokesperson told Insider in an email that the leak of the disclosure is “illegal” and lacks “proper context and relevant information.”
“The Department of Justice should investigate the criminal leaking, instead of perpetrating their baseless witch-hunts while knowing that President Trump did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency, and acted in a proper manner, according to the law,” the spokesperson said.
The details, according to ABC News’ sources, revolved around the number of nuclear warheads US submarines could carry and how close they could get to a Russian submarine without detection.
It’s unclear if Trump relayed accurate information, but investigators have asked Pratt not to repeat it elsewhere, sources told ABC News.
A former Mar-a-Lago employee later alleged to investigators that he heard Pratt share the details with another person within minutes after his meeting with Trump, according to the ABC News report.
The allegations about Trump disclosing that information were shared with special counsel Jack Smith‘s team. Smith is leading the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents — some of which included top-secret national security information.
Trump was indicted on 40 charges related to keeping national security secrets, obstructing investigations, and making false statements.
Details of the reported discussions between Pratt and Trump were not included in the indictment.
Sources told ABC News that Pratt claimed to investigators that he talked about his meeting with Trump with other people because he was pushing for a business partnership between Australia and the US.
According to the report, the potentially sensitive discussion around submarines came up after Pratt remarked to Trump that Australia should buy US submarines.
Several months after the discussion, Australia abruptly backed out of its deal with France to buy conventional submarines and went to the US and UK to purchase nuclear-powered submarines.
The US sold three Virgnia-class, nuclear-powered, submarines to Australia.
While Pratt told investigators that Trump did not share any government documents, according to ABC News’ sources, previous reports revealed that the former president showed off privileged records to his associates and waved them in front of a writer.