Stephanie Grisham, the former press secretary and communications director in Donald Trump’s White House, asserted that it is credible to believe that her ex-boss may have exhibited classified documents to individuals lacking security clearances because she witnessed that occurrence herself.
“I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio,” Grisham stated during an interview with MSNBC’s “Alex Witt Reports” on Saturday. “He has no respect for classified information. Never did.”
Recently, media outlets obtained an audio tape in which Trump discussed a secret military document compiled by Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a July 2021 meeting in New Jersey with individuals working on a memoir for his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Trump later dismissed his words in the recording as mere “bravado.”
“I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents,” Trump told ABC News and Semafor.
Grisham expressed concern about the potential danger to U.S. national security when allowing individuals without security clearances to access top-secret files.
“To be showing it to people who haven’t gone through the extreme vetting that you go through to get a clearance, it’s a disservice to the country, but it also puts people in danger potentially,” Grisham remarked.
Drawing from her own experience, Grisham highlighted the rigorous process of obtaining security clearance.
“I remember when I was going through it to get all of mine, I got held up because of a $13 KinderCare bill that I did not know about, and so I couldn’t get clearance,” she recalled. “They go through everything about you.”
Last month, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on 37 federal felony counts related to the removal of classified documents from the White House and his refusal to return them. Additionally, he is currently under investigation in Georgia for his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in that state.
When asked whether Trump should anticipate another indictment, Grisham responded, “Yes, I do think he should be bracing for that.”
Watch the interview below:
