Trump campaign blasts Stephanie Grisham for ‘lying’ about classified documents
Rachel Schilke
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Donald Trump‘s campaign blasted former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham for “lying” about the former president’s mishandling of classified documents.
Grisham appeared on MSNBC’s Alex Witt Reports on Saturday, and when asked to comment on Trump’s federal indictment, she said she had seen Trump display classified materials to people at private meetings at his home in Mar-a-Lago.
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“I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio. So, he has no respect for classified information. Never did,” Grisham said. “You know, listening to that exchange every time, it just makes me so angry. He talks specifically that he should have declassified it, but he didn’t.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 counts, several relating to the violation of the Espionage Act, in Miami on June 13. The indictment was the result of an almost yearlong special counsel investigation into the hundreds of classified documents, some marked “top secret” or “confidential,” that were found during an FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
Grisham pointed the Washington Examiner to a Washington Post article from 2017 as proof of possible breaches of defense information that occurred well before the publicized FBI raid. A member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club said the former president, who was in office at the time, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reviewed documents relating to a North Korean missile launch — an incident that Democrats decried as a danger to national security.
At the time, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said “no classified material” was shared at the table and the former president had been briefed before and after dinner at his home.
However, Grisham said the lax display of security regarding classified information, both then and recently, was concerning.
“It’s very difficult to get a security clearance … 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 said. “I think that, you know, I can’t stress enough how by being so loose with this stuff, he’s potentially putting people in danger.”
Trump’s campaign told the Washington Examiner in a statement that Grisham was “lying.”
“We won’t dignify a disgruntled, low-level former staffer who is trying to salvage her non-existent career by peddling falsehoods. There are consequences to lying,” a Trump spokesperson said.
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Grisham laughed off the campaign’s comments in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Lol. I was press sec & director of comms for the east & west wings. That’s 3 senior positions at the same time – a first in history, but sure, low-level,” Grisham said. “Everything I said has already been widely reported, so their veiled threat is nothing more than the usual and tired Trump bullying tactic. I know, I used to do it.”