President Donald Trump allegedly showed a classified map to passengers on a private flight in 2022 and retained another record so sensitive that only six people in the government had access to it, according to a memo released to Congress.
Representative Jamie Raskin, the leading Democrat on the House Judiciary committee, said the justice department provided him with a “damning” memo about Trump’s handling of classified documents.
The 2023 document, prepared for Special Counsel Jack Smith, also alleges that Trump withheld some records to advance his personal business interests.
The White House dismissed the allegations saying Raskin had “zero credibility” and that Trump “did nothing wrong”.
The full memo provided to the US House committee has not been made public, but Raskin cited several excerpts from it in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“These new disclosures suggest that Donald Trump stole documents so sensitive that only six people in the entire U.S. government had access to them,” Raskin said.
The memo said prosecutors “identified a classified map that we believe Trump may have shown to individuals on board” a private plane. The memo reportedly identified Susan Wiles, now serving as Trump’s chief of staff, as among those on the flight.
The document was prepared as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal prosecution of Trump over his retention of classified records after he left office.
Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing and accused the justice department under his predecessor Joe Biden of being weaponised against him.
A federal judge later dismissed the case, citing concerns over the manner of Smith’s appointment.
Smith subsequently dropped his appeal following Trump’s re-election in 2024, in line with longstanding justice department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
A justice department spokesperson did not dispute Raskin’s quotes from the memo but rejected its credibility.
“We understand that Jamie Raskin, much like Jack Smith, is blinded by hatred of President Trump,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC. “Jack Smith’s team was desperate to prosecute Biden’s top political opponent, so it is no surprise that his files contain salacious and untrue claims about President Trump.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson also dismissed the memo in a statement to the BBC.
“It’s pathetic that Democrats with zero credibility like Jamie Raskin are still clinging to deranged Jack Smith and his lies in 2026,” she said. “President Trump did nothing wrong, which is why he easily defeated the Biden DOJ’s unprecedented lawfare campaign against him.”
By BBC News
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