Former President Donald Trump shared classified information regarding United States nuclear submarines with an Australian businessman at Mar-a-Lago, sources said, according to the New York Times.
The billionaire, Mar-a-Lago member Anthony Pratt, runs the largest cardboard company in the world, according to the Times. Sources said Pratt shared the sensitive information with several others, possibly putting the U.S. nuclear submarines at risk.
The disclosure was reported to special counsel Jack Smith’s team, ABC News reported. It was reported to Smith as his team was investigating Trump’s possession of classified documents that were being stored at Mar-a-Lago, sources told ABC News.
Sources told the Times that Pratt is among the now more than 80 people whom prosecutors have identified as potential witnesses in the classified documents case, and that he could be called to testify against Trump. The trial is expected to start in May in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Pratt’s name reportedly does not appear in the indictment, according to the Times. He was, however, believed to have been interviewed twice this year by prosecutors and the FBI, ABC News reported.
In the interviews, Pratt reportedly talked about how he tried to make conversation with Trump. Trump was the one who brought up the U.S. nuclear submarines, sources told ABC News. It was a topic that Pratt said they had discussed before.
“But the account that Mr. Trump discussed some of the country’s most sensitive nuclear secrets with him in a cavalier fashion could help prosecutors establish that the former president had a long habit of recklessly handling classified information,” the Times reported.
Trump released a statement on his Truth Social platform Friday.
“The ridiculous story put out today about me talking to a Mar-a-Lago member about U.S. Submarines, is false and ridiculous, other than the fact that I will often state that we make the best Submarines and Military Equipment anywhere in the World—A pretty well known fact,” he said.
