(NewsNation) — Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said she witnessed former President Donald Trump showing people classified documents on the patio of Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has been indicted on federal charges related to his retention of classified documents after he left the White House. In the indictment, prosecutors laid out a case that included evidence the documents were stored in areas of Mar-a-Lago potentially open to the public and detailed two occasions where Trump reportedly showed classified material to people not authorized to view it.
Audio tapes of Trump showing a classified document to someone at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club could be used by prosecutors to demonstrate the former president’s casual attitude toward sensitive material.
Appearing on MSNBC, Grisham said she personally witnessed Trump showing people classified documents during his presidency. She said the former president had no respect for classified material and would share documents while on the dining room patio at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has defended himself, claiming the audio tapes exonerate him and that he wasn’t actually holding the document he was discussing. He dismissed Grisham as a “low-level” staffer and called her “disgruntled.”
Grisham brushed off the comments, telling NewsNation’s Joe Khalil she held three senior positions in the Trump administration simultaneously.
“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,” she said.
The federal charges are Trump’s second indictment. He is also facing campaign finance-related charges in New York and there are two other investigations still pending, one related to his alleged efforts to overturn election results in Georgia and another federal investigation into his conduct on Jan. 6.
The former president has continued to hit the campaign trail even as he faces serious charges. Currently the front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2024, Trump has dismissed the charges as election interference.
