Today is Wednesday, May 31, 2023, the last day of May. The needle is moving closer to indictment, in my opinion and of many other pundits, of the former president in an explosive CNN exclusive just revealed this evening: Federal prosecutors have now obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which commander-in-“grief” Donald Dumpf acknowledged he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything. This new development is provided in an online CNN article by Katelyn Polantz, Paula Reid, and Kaitlan Collins entitled “EXCLUSIVE: Trump captured on tape talking about classified document he kept after leaving the White House.”

The recording indicates Dumpf understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the ongoing probe. On the incriminating recording, Dumpf’s comments suggest he would like to share the information, but he’s aware of limitations on his ability postpresidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.

The news outlet has not listened to the recording, but multiple sources have described it, in which one source said the relevant portion on the Iran document is about two minutes long, and another source said the discussion is a small part of a much longer meeting.

Sources describe the recording as an “important” piece of evidence in a possible case against Dumpf, who has repeatedly asserted he could retain presidential records and “automatically” declassify documents.

This new episode in the material gathering of evidence in the ongoing Dumpf probe has led to the questioning of General Mark Milley, one of the highest-ranking Trump-era national security officials, about the incident.

The July 2021 meeting as held at Dumpf’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, with two people working on the autobiography (hmmm, were they “ghost writers” in something that is supposed to be written by Meadows himself?) as well as aides employed by the former president, including communications specialist Margo Martin. The attendees, sources said, did not have security clearances that would have given them access to classified information, which is another issue here.

This new information about Dumpf possibly sharing classified information with another party contradicts what he indicated at that repulsive town hall in early May when he was asked if he showed classified documents to anyone after he left the presidency. He answered, “Not really. I would have the right to. By the way, they were declassified after.” This is another lie, obviously.

The blockbuster meeting took place well before Dumpf’s team shipped 15 boxes of presidential records and classified documents back to the National Archives and Records Administration in January 2022 after months of back-and-forth between his team and the records agency.

The Justice Department, as you well may remember, seized more than 100 additional material during a search of Mar-a-Lago last August. Trump’s legal team hired people to search other Dumpf properties, including Bedminster, late last year. Boy, did this guy move sensitive documents around as if they were just harmless memos.

Now that the cat has proverbially gotten out of the bag with this new revelation about the July 2021 meeting Dumpf held with aides and others in the room, there’s still no indication that Dumpf followed the legally mandated declassification process, and his attorneys have avoided saying so far in court whether their client declassified records he kept. Because he didn’t do it, folks! The evidence is now pointing in that direction.

The news just seems to get worse and worse for the wanna-be autocrat. Nothing incriminates more than an audio recording and prosecutors now have one in the continuing investigation into Dumpf’s alleged illegal activities with regard to taking sensitive documents out of the White House and not returning them. The needle is moving ever more closely to a probable indictment in this case now, as I indicated earlier. Unless Dumpf can prove that a Dumpf impersonator’s voice is on that incriminating tape!

Stay safe and be well. Happy June 1.