Stephanie Grisham says Trump would show classified docs to diners at Mar-a-Lago

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham recalled seeing former President Donald Trump show documents to diners on the patio of Mar-a-Lago. 

Grisham appeared Saturday on MSNBC’s Alex Witt Reports and was asked if it was plausible Trump was showing classified documents to people in private meetings. 

CNN obtained audio of Trump discussing a document that was described in the indictment as an Iran battle plan, which he reportedly showed a writer and publisher working on a book on July 21, 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

‘The short answer is yes. I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio,’ Grisham answered. ‘So he has no respect for classified information. Never did.’ 

The former president has stuck to his story that despite describing something as ‘highly confidential’ and saying it contained ‘secret information’ about Iran, in reality he was showing off newspaper and magazine clippings. 

Grisham didn’t buy it. 

‘You know, listening to that exchange every time, it just makes me so angry,’ she said, later adding that Trump’s comments on that tape are ‘offensive.’ 

‘He talks specifically that he should have declassified it, but he didn’t. So there, I think, is proof. I believe also there’s a portion of that audio where he says, you know, this is off the record,’ she continued. 

Grisham said that Trump was well-versed in ‘off the record’ rules that reporters use. 

‘And he knows if it needs to be off the record that they can’t talk about it. So I think he was covering himself in that regard,’ she said. 

 Grisham also talked about how difficult it is to get a security clearance. 

‘I got held up because of a $13 kindercare bill that I did not know about, and so I couldn’t get cleared,’ she recalled. 

Former President Donald Trump has denied showing classified material about Iran to an editor and writer, instead saying that he had newspaper and magazine articles on his desk at his Bedminster golf resort 

Grisham recalled Trump showing off documents to people dining on the patio of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida (pictured) 

‘It’s very difficult to get a security clearance. And I think people, you know, they miss that in the weeds, obviously. But to be showing it to people who haven’t gone through the extreme vetting that you go through to get a clearance, it’s you know, it’s a disservice to the country, but it also puts people in danger potentially,’ Grisham added. 

Grisham was among those in the Trump administration who turned critic after the January 6 Capitol attack. 

She resigned as Melania Trump’s chief of staff that day, after serving as the first lady’s press secretary and then as White House press secretary and communications director. 

During her tenure, Grisham never held an on-camera White House briefing, instead appearing on Fox News and other conservative TV outlets. 

Trump was indicted last month in Miami on 37 federal charges for the mishandling of classified documents and pleaded not guilty.