documents. the trump campaign saying, the doj has continued interference in the presidential election is shameful, and this investigation should seize wasting the american taxpayers money on democrat political objectives. when we search bedminster, there were no classified documents or for documents. former trump lawyer who left trump s legal team in recent weeks, says the classification status of the document trump is her talking about is irrelevant based on the laws that are cited in summer 2022. the doj is investigating these willful retention of national defense information. whether it is classified or declassified, it is not an element of that offense. our thanks to paula reid for that report. now officials in iowa are expected to in the coming hours about the latest on that building collapse there on sunday.
tim parlatore, who left trump s legal team in recent weeks, says the classification status of the document trump is heard talking about is irrelevant based on the laws that are cited in the search warrant that was executed in summer 2022. really what doj is investigating is willful retention of national defense information. whether it s classified or declassified is not an element of that offense. reporter: former president trump s lawyers have asked for a meeting with attorney general merrick garland to express their concerns about the special counsel s regs. one of trump s attorneys tells cnn there have been some communications between doj and the trump legal team about the possibility of this meeting. but the fact there is this recording in the hands of investigators really undercuts their key concern, which is their allegation this is just a politically motivated investigation. but if they do get this meeting with the attorney general or
automatically declassified when i took them. and the same goes for this. if you are the president of the united states, you can declassified just by saying it is declassified. even by thinking about it. the incident is so serious that a special counsel investigating trump has now questioned the joint chiefs chairman general mark milley about it. sources tell cnn that the tape of a meeting between trump and people without a security clearance. it did not take place at mar-a-lago as well where the other classified documents were found. but instead they were at trump s golf club in bedminster, new jersey. let me first bring in one of the journalists who broke the story. cnn s kaitlan collins. so caitlin, a huge thing here. what does this all tell us about what donald trump knew about the status? the classification status of these documents? yeah it is really significant reporting from our team. it was a team effort on this. and i think the biggest take away from it, likely the bi
defense. asked if he had ever shared any information at cnn s town hall not really. i would have the right to. by the way, they were declassified. what do you mean not really. not that i can think of. let me just tell you, i have the absolute right to do whatever i want with them. reporter: this summer, 2021 recording, comes out of trump s new jersey golf club. now, the second confirmed state where he has had classified information. after the fbi walked out of his mar-a-lago estate in florida with boxes of top secret documents. the trump campaign saying, the doj s continued interference in the presidential election is shameful and this meritless investigation should cease wasting the american taxpayers money on democrat political objectives. when we searched bedminster there were no classified documents or marked documents there. reporter: former trump lawyer says the classification status of the document trump is heard
and that what you re doing is to further that criminal act. people may take actions that may seem similar but when talking about proving intent in a criminal court that s the nuanced part of the case that needs to be looked at. people can move boxes but if there is a clear claim to i own these boxes the federal government can t come into my house, execute a search warrant because they think they might mind something on me, i m allowed to do that. but if there s a question about whether my actions are within the realm of the law or not that s where you re going to have those differentiations. so it s a very difficult case on a prosecutorial side when you don t have proof clear proof of an underlying crime but it s not an impossible case. here because we are talking about a former president, i keep saying that, but that is nothing that the supreme court has ever weighed in on in terms of the classification status of documents kept by a former president because there is no specific proc