[Admin Note: Headline edited for accuracy.]
Well, look at this.
Stephanie Grisham, Trump's former White House press secretary and communications director, appeared on MSNBC on Saturday to discuss the newest revelations with Trump's criminal indictment for purported mishandling of classified materials post-presidency. Grisham is first asked by the host if she had ever crossed paths with Susie Wiles, whom many have speculated is one of the aides who was shown a classified document, according to the indictment.
"Yes, I have crossed paths with her, she is pretty well-known in political circles. In fact she used to work for Ron DeSantis, until they had a falling out," Grisham said. "So, I know Trump really needs her in the position that she's in, because DeSantis is his biggest competition at this moment."
She added that, if it's true that Miles was the one allegedly shown a classified document, "That is going to obviously put her in a very awkward position."
"I do believe, you know, I'm sure people all in the Trump world right now are working hard to figure out if it's her, asking her questions. It will just put her in an awkward position. I'm interested to see how it will play out ultimately, because he is not trusting many people right now."
Asked if it is "plausible" that Trump was showing classified documents to people in private meetings, Grisham said: "the short answer is yes."
"I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago, on the dining room patio," she added. "He has no respect for classified information, and never did."
After hearing audio of the alleged meeting in which Trump purportedly showed military documents on Iran, Grisham said, "Listening to that exchange, every time it just makes me so angry."
Paging: Jack Smith — potential witness alert.
Ok, went out for guitar strings and I see the title has changed. Frankly, I’m always changing titles as new information comes through. Stephanie did say “the short answer is ‘Yes’” to a question about the plausibility of Trump sharing docs with someone privately. Then she recounted a specific example of him doing that.
On the other hand, others have noted that Stephanie left Trump-world while he was still in the White House. So he had either still had declassification powers or else the power to theoretically grant them clearance by fiat just as he did with Jared.
I think he would need to do that in writing after the fact, but he could do it. My expectation is that he didn’t bother doing it, and that’s still a problem.
So, yeah, ok, whatever.
Just as a follow-up here on MSNBC they seem to interpret that same statement by Grisham as her saying Trump shared “Classified Docs” at Mar-A-Lago. Technically not illegal as POTUS, but really bad protocol and total insouciance.