Donald Trump is already under investigation for storing classified information at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Now US media have made new serious allegations against the ex-president because of his handling of secret information.
According to US media, former US President Donald Trump revealed secret details about nuclear submarines to an Australian billionaire after the end of his term in office. Trump passed on the information at a dinner at his private estate Mar-a-Lago in the US state of Florida, reports ABC and the New York Times, among others, citing people familiar with the matter. According to The New York Times, anonymous sources identified the billionaire as Anthony Pratt, who heads one of the world’s largest packaging and paper companies.
Pratt is said to have told several people about Trump’s statements
ABC News reports that Pratt later shared the information with “numerous other people.” Among the businessman’s interlocutors were “more than a dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees and a handful of journalists.” The New York Times cited sources saying Trump’s indiscretions “potentially endangered the US nuclear fleet.”
Pratt met Trump in April 2021 at his golf club in Palm Beach. As ABC further reports, the entrepreneur expressed the view to the ex-president that Australia should buy its submarines from the USA in the future. Trump then allegedly told Pratt the exact number of nuclear warheads that U.S. Navy submarines typically carry and how close they can get to Russian submarines without being detected.
Federal prosecutors, who are already investigating Trump for storing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, questioned Pratt twice about the incident, the reports said. The Australian could now testify as a witness against the ex-president in the trial, which is scheduled to begin in Florida in May.
Trump has to fight legally on several fronts. The Republican is accused, among other things, of illegally storing highly sensitive information from his time as US President in private rooms. According to the indictment, these include secret documents containing information on US nuclear capabilities and the country’s military emergency plans. The Federal Police FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and confiscated various classified information there. Trump pleaded not guilty at the arraignment in Miami in June. It was the first federal indictment for the Republican. The trial is scheduled to start on May 20, 2024.
