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Shortly after he left office, former President Donald J. Trump shared apparently classified information about American nuclear submarines with an Australian businessman during an evening of conversation at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The businessman, Anthony Pratt, a billionaire member of Mar-a-Lago who runs one of the worlds largest cardboard companies, went on to share the sensitive details about the submarines with several others, the people said. Mr. Trumps disclosures, they said, potentially endangered the U.S. nuclear fleet.

Federal prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, learned about Mr. Trumps disclosures of the secrets to Mr. Pratt, which were first revealed by ABC News, and interviewed him as part of their investigation into the former presidents handling of classified documents, the people said.

According to another person familiar with the matter, Mr. Pratt is now among more than 80 people whom prosecutors have identified as possible witnesses who could testify against Mr. Trump at the classified documents trial, which is scheduled to start in May in Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Fla.

Mr. Pratts name does not appear in the indictment accusing Mr. Trump of illegally holding on to nearly three dozen classified documents after he left office and then conspiring with two of his aides at Mar-a-Lago to obstruct the governments attempts to get them back.

But the account that Mr. Trump discussed some of the countrys 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.

And the existence of the testimony about the conversation underscores how much additional information the special prosecutors office may have amassed out of the publics view.

During his talk with Mr. Pratt, Mr. Trump revealed at least two pieces of critical information about the U.S. submarines tactical capacities, according to the people familiar with the matter. Those included how many nuclear warheads the vessels carried and how close they could get to their Russian counterparts without being detected.

It does not appear that Mr. Trump showed Mr. Pratt any of the classified documents that he had been keeping at Mar-a-Lago. In August last year, the F.B.I. carried out a court-approved search warrant at the property and hauled away more than 100 documents containing national security secrets, including some that bore the countrys most sensitive classification markings.

Mr. Trump had earlier returned hundreds of other documents he had taken with him from the White House, some in response to a subpoena.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Mr. Smith declined to comment. Representatives for Mr. Pratt did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Even though Mr. Pratt has been interviewed by prosecutors, the people familiar with the matter said, it remained unclear whether Mr. Trump was merely blustering or exaggerating in his conversation with him.

Joe Hockey, a former Australian ambassador to the United States, sought to play down Mr. Trumps disclosures to Mr. Pratt in a phone interview on Thursday.

If thats all that was discussed, we already know all that, Mr. Hockey said. We have had Australians serving with Americans on U.S. submarines for years, and we share the same technology and the same weapons as the U.S. Navy.

Still, Mr. Trump has been known to share classified information verbally on other occasions. During an Oval Office meeting in 2017 shortly after he fired the F.B.I. director James B. Comey, Mr. Trump revealed sensitive classified intelligence to two Russian officials, according to people briefed on the matter.

Well into his presidency, he also posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, a classified photo of an Iranian launch site.

The indictment in the documents case also accused Mr. Trump of showing a classified battle plan to attack Iran to a group of visitors to his club in Bedminster, N.J. Prosecutors claim that a recording of the meeting with the visitors depicts Mr. Trump as describing the document he brandished as secret.

Mr. Trump has not had access to more updated U.S. intelligence since leaving the presidency; President Biden cut off the briefings that former presidents traditionally get when Mr. Trump left office in the wake of Mr. Trumps efforts to overturn the election and the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021.

I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings, Mr. Biden said at the time.

What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? he said. What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?

Mr. Trumps interactions with Mr. Pratt appear to fit a pattern of the former presidents collapsing his public office and its secrets into his private interests.

Mr. Pratt cultivated a relationship with Mr. Trump once he became president. He joined Mar-a-Lago in 2017, then was invited to a state dinner and had Mr. Trump join him at one of his companys plants in Ohio.

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Trump Said to Have Revealed Nuclear Submarine Secrets to Australian Businessman - The New York Times

Donald Trump is doing a brilliant job of promoting Letitia James. The former president had been punching at New York States attorney general sporadically for more than a year, calling James a racist and a disgrace as her office investigated whether Trump and his company had committed fraud by manipulating the value of his businesses. But now, as Trump is on trial, he has taken to attacking James on a daily basis, raging to reporters outside the lower Manhattan courtroom while calling her grossly incompetent, a monster, and even a deranged lunatic on social media.

The publicity offensive is certainly ugly and perverse, but it is elevating Jamess profile. The attorney general has already won one enormous victory against the former president: Last month, state judge Arthur Engoron ruled that James had proven that Trump and his companies committed long-running fraud in their financial statements. This case was brought simply because it was a case where individuals have engaged in a pattern and practice of fraud, James said on Wednesday. And I will not sit idly by and allow anyone to subvert the law. Upon the former presidents departure, James told reporters that the Donald Trump show is over and suggested his voluntary appearance in court was nothing more than a political stunt, a fundraising stop.

The current legal proceedings, which could last until December, are to determine what penalty Trump will pay, from a monetary fine to being barred from doing business in New York State. Perhaps Engoron will allow Trump to walk away with an anticlimactic slap on the wrist. But the odds that James will earn a large legal triumph and accumulate a sizable stockpile of political capital look far better.

Political capital that she will cash in to gowell, probably nowhere. The earnest, consensus view is that James will stay put because she loves her current job. Tish is not interested in publicity or what drives most elected officials, says Roberto Ramirez, a former New York Democratic state assemblyman who knows James well from his work as a strategist on several of her campaigns. She is the unicorn of New York politics. She is obsessed with the substantive nature of being a lawyer for the state.

There is also the hard political reality that James is boxed in. New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand arent departing anytime soon. Two years ago James mounted a brief, half-hearted run for governor (The people around her wanted it far more than she did, a state Democratic insider says), and the incumbent, Kathy Hochul, wont be on the ballot again until 2026. In the past, James has talked far more enthusiastically about running for mayor of New York Citybut it is very hard to see her giving up a powerful statewide office for a bloody 2025 primary challenge to fellow Democrat and fellow Brooklynite Eric Adams.

And then theres the more intriguing constraint on Jamess enhanced prestige: She would undermine a defeat of Trump by trying to capitalize on it. Joe Bidens reelection campaign is highly worried about turning out crucial Black voters, particularly women, in battleground states. James would be an energetic, effective surrogateexcept that making her a prominent part of the presidents campaign would hand Trump ammunition. This case adds a lot of value to her political future, and it inoculates her from what a lot of women in her position have to deal with, being more credentialed and validated in ways that men dont, says Cornell Belcher, a Democratic strategist who worked on both of Barack Obamas White House runs. But the Biden campaign couldnt and wouldnt use her, because it would feed into the narrative that Trump wants, that this case is about politics.

James certainly doesnt lack ambition. She maneuvered through the treacherous, corruption-prone ranks of the Brooklyn Democratic Party to be elected a city councilwoman, before winning one of New Yorks three citywide offices, as public advocate. James had entered politics as a candidate of the left-wing Working Families Partybut ditched the WFP to make a useful alliance with its mortal enemy, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, in her successful 2018 run for AG. In 2021, after conducting an investigation requested by Cuomo, James delivered a 165-page report detailing multiple sexual harassment allegations against him. One week later the governor announced his resignation.

One year into her second term as New Yorks top prosecutor James, 64, looks as if shes settling in for at least the medium haul. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, when too many pols are fixated on the next rung of the ladder. Yet unpredictable things have a way of happening in politics. Its natural for a person to feel maybe I should consider other options, Ramirez says. Her future is only limited by what she wishes to do. For the moment, though, James is the rare politician whose future is paradoxically restricted by the nature of her imminent triumph.

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Donald Trump Can Snarl All He Likes, But He's Making a Star Out of ... - Vanity Fair

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Editor's note: Nehls on Thursday evening said on social media that he spoke with former President Donald Trump about the speakership and learned he was supporting Rep. Jim Jordan. Nehls said he too would now support Jordan.

WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, is recruiting his peers to support the exceedingly improbable push to make former President Donald Trump the next speaker of the House.

I nominate Donald J. Trump for Speaker of the House, U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls declared on social media shortly after Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the job.

Nehls said this week he has since reached out to a host of other Republicans, including Rep. Ronny Jackson of Amarillo, and said some of them would be open to making the case for Trump as the House votes on its next speaker Wednesday. Jackson, a staunch Trump supporter, used to be the presidents White House physician. Jacksons office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Jackson tweeted on Thursday afternoon he was throwing his support behind Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

No one who is not a member of Congress has ever served as speaker, and the idea faces near impossible political odds. But Trump has shown some signs of humoring the idea. He is considering visiting the Capitol before the speaker election, Politico reported, and posted a picture of himself with the speakers gavel on social media.

Trump is also the Republican forerunner for the 2024 presidential election and has said that hes keeping his attention on that race. Speaking with reporters Wednesday outside a New York courthouse where he is the defendant in a civil suit, Trump said hell do whatevers best for the country and the Republican Party but we have some great people already running for speaker.

Ill do whatever it is to help, but my focus, my total focus, is being president, Trump continued.

The odds against Trump are enormous. He is mired in a web of legal challenges, including four criminal indictments related to hush money payments to cover up an alleged affair, retaining of classified documents after being instructed to return them and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

There are few people whom House Democrats despise more than Trump, and the speaker is chosen by a simple majority in the whole House. Trump would need practically the entire Republican conference to back him, and there are some popular Republicans already in the race. Democrats voted as a bloc to remove McCarthy and are unlikely to support another Republican candidate. They repeatedly voted unanimously for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to be speaker in January.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Jordan have both thrown their names into the ring to become speaker. Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern has also expressed interest and made a pitch during a Texas Republican delegation lunch Wednesday.

Scalise already has several vocal backers, including Reps. Tony Gonzales of San Antonio and Jake Ellzey of Waxahachie.

The choice appears to be from that pool for most rank and file Republicans. Several Texas members said they were impressed with Scalise, Jordan and Hern and would be happy to support whoever among them would be able to rally the support of the entire conference.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, a close Trump ally, has also been calling for the former president to become speaker.

Disclosure: Politico has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls leads push for Donald Trump to be next House ... - The Texas Tribune

Twice in a row, he posted the same video of James. In the video, James says, the number one issue in this country is defeating Donald Trump. Nothing else matters.

A fourth post, accompanied by another video of James, read: JUSTICE IN AMERICA. Terminate this Witch Hunt trial. How can Judge Engoron allow this scam to continue. Also, I am worth much MORE than on Financials, and have 100% DISCLAIMER CLAUSE. Therefore, cant be Fraud!!! END THIS FAKE $18,000,000 Mar-a-Lago TRIAL. A total miscarriage of justice!

Trump further posted multiple times on Hunter Biden and unsubstantiated allegations of White House corruption.

In comparison, his tone on Israel was muted.

These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force. Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration. We brought so much peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, only to see Biden whittle it away at a far more rapid pace than anyone thought possible. Here we go again, read his campaign statement.

Later in the day, Trump returned to attacking James, calling her a total Wack Job.

The Corrupt A.G.s Fake Trial in New York should be immediately ended. The highly political Judge is being CONNED by the Racist A.G, he wrote in a lengthy screed.

James sued Trump in a New York court, accusing him of extensive business fraud. The former president has relentlessly attacked James and others involved in the ongoing trial, leading the judge to issue a partial gag order.

In the past, Trump has been vocal in his support for Israel. During his presidency, he closely aligned himself with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and officially recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital.

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As war broke out, Trump focused on Tish James, N.Y. fraud trial - POLITICO

Powerful allies of President Biden are aggressively working to stop third-party and independent presidential candidacies, fearing that an outside bid could cost Democrats an election that many believe will again come down to a few percentage points in key battleground states.

As attempts to mount outside campaigns multiply, a broad coalition has accelerated a multipronged assault to starve such efforts of financial and political support and warn fellow Democrats that supporting outsider candidacies, including the centrist organization No Labels, could throw the election to former President Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Bidens top aides have blessed the multimillion-dollar offensive, which cuts across the party, tapping the resources of the Democratic National Committee, labor unions, abortion rights groups, top donors and advocacy groups backing moderate and liberal Democrats. Even the president has helped spread the word: Mr. Biden, in an interview with ProPublica, said a No Labels candidacy would help the other guy.

The endeavor is far-reaching. In Washington, Democratic allies are working alongside top party strategists to spread negative information about possible outsider candidates. Across the country, lawyers have begun researching moves to limit ballot access or at least make it more costly to qualify.

At expensive resorts and closed-door conferences, Democratic donors are urging their friends not to fund potential spoiler candidates. And in key swing states, lone-wolf operators, including a librarian from Arizona, are trying their own tactics to make life difficult for third-party contenders.

The anxiety over candidates and parties traditionally consigned to the fringes of American politics reflects voters deep dissatisfaction with both men who are likely to become the major parties nominees. No third-party candidate has risen out of the single digits in three decades, since Ross Perot captured nearly a fifth of the vote in 1992. Given the devotion of Mr. Trumps most ardent supporters, Democrats fear that most of the attrition would come from Mr. Bidens fragile coalition.

Theyve got to understand the risk that they are exposing the country to by doing this, said Richard A. Gephardt, a former House majority leader and a Democratic Party graybeard who has formed a super PAC to attack outsider campaigns. This is too dangerous of an idea to put in play in this context, in this year. These are not normal times.

Mr. Gephardt warned that third-party candidates threatened not only Mr. Bidens chances of victory but also the stability of American democracy. Internal polling conducted by his group found that an independent centrist candidate could attract more than 20 percent of the vote in competitive states, helping Mr. Trump in all but one of them.

In recent days, two candidates have taken steps toward mounting independent bids. Cornel West, the left-wing Harvard professor, announced on Thursday that he would run as an independent candidate. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hinted that he may announce on Monday that he is leaving the Democratic presidential primary race to run as an independent. Already, a super PAC backing his bid has raised $17 million, according to Tony Lyons, the groups treasurer.

Still, most of the Biden allies attention is directed at No Labels, the best-funded outsider organization, which after years of sponsoring bipartisan congressional caucuses is working to gain ballot access for a presidential candidate for the first time.

The groups chief executive, Nancy Jacobson, has told potential donors and allies that the No Labels candidate will be a moderate Republican, according to three people familiar with the conversations. That decision would rule out Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a Democrat whose flirtation with the idea has prompted a wave of angst within his party.

No Labels has already raised $60 million, Ms. Jacobson said in an interview, and has qualified for the ballot in 11 states, including the presidential battlegrounds of Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina. The group plans to spend about half of the money on securing ballot access across all 50 states.

Ms. Jacobson said her organization was devoted to presenting voters with an option beyond Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump. No Labels is in the process of vetting potential candidates now and will announce its delegate selection process in the coming weeks, she said. The plan is to hold a nominating convention in April in Dallas and anoint a presidential ticket if it is clear the country is heading toward a 2020 rematch.

Ms. Jacobson and her chief strategist, Ryan Clancy, insist that their effort is in good faith and is not a secret plot to help Mr. Trump win.

Were never going to be a party to something that would spoil it for Trump, Mr. Clancy said.

No Labels has focused its recent polling on eight states that are expected to be competitive in a Biden-Trump contest, though Mr. Clancy said he believed a No Labels ticket would be viable in 25 states. If a third-party or independent candidate were to gain serious traction, it could reshuffle the entire presidential map, potentially turning states like New York or Texas into true battlegrounds.

Mr. Kennedy has also been a source of concern for Democrats, who worry that his anti-corporate politics and famous last name could pull some of their voters away from Mr. Biden. But some of Mr. Bidens top allies also believe that Mr. Kennedy, who has increasingly pushed right-wing ideas, would hurt Mr. Trump.

The broad Democratic unease is rooted in a core belief that Mr. Trump has both a low ceiling and a high floor of general-election support meaning that his voters are less likely to be swayed by a third-party or independent candidate. Mr. Biden has wider appeal, but his supporters are not as loyal, and polling has suggested that they could be persuaded to back someone else if given more options.

Public and private surveys point to increased interest in alternatives this election. In polling released this week by Monmouth University, majorities of voters said that they were not enthusiastic about Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden being at the top of their partys ticket and that they would not back either man if the race became a rematch.

Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the center-left group Third Way who is serving as a clearinghouse for Democrats effort to block third-party and independent candidates, is working with the progressive organization MoveOn and a host of like-minded Biden allies to dissuade anyone from having any association with No Labels. Those efforts are bankrolled by more than $1 million from Reid Hoffman, the billionaire Democratic megadonor.

Mr. Bennett is using Third Ways connections with centrist donors to try to block No Labels access to money, while Rahna Epting, the executive director of MoveOn, has been briefing other progressive groups and labor unions about the dangers of their members supporting third-party candidates instead of Mr. Biden.

Anything that divides the anti-Trump coalition is bad, Mr. Bennett said.

Marc Elias, one of the partys most dogged and litigious election lawyers, has been retained by American Bridge, the Democratic Partys primary opposition research organization, to vet ballot-qualification efforts by No Labels and other third-party efforts.

And the Democratic National Committee has instructed state and county party leaders to say nothing in public about No Labels, according to an email the Utah Democratic Party sent to county leaders in the state.

We need to do everything we can to stop this effort NOW, and not wait until they name a ticket and this becomes a runaway train, Thom DeSirant, the executive director of the Utah Democratic Party, wrote in a missive that included links to Third Ways talking points about how to speak about No Labels.

The efforts resemble hand-to-hand political combat in both public and private. The abortion rights group Reproductive Freedom for All wrote on social media that Jon M. Huntsman Jr., a Republican former governor of Utah who has been linked to the No Labels bid, is an abortion extremist, based on anti-abortion views he articulated during his 2012 presidential campaign.

And Michael Steele, who served as a lieutenant governor of Maryland and as Republican National Committee chairman, has assumed the portfolio of persuading former Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a moderate Republican who has publicly toyed with accepting the No Labels nomination, to end his association with the group.

Ive told the governor what I think he should do, Mr. Steele said.

Perhaps nowhere has No Labels run into as many real-world roadblocks as in Arizona.

After the group successfully qualified for the presidential ballot, the Arizona Democratic Party sued to remove it. That legal effort failed, but the attention led two people to submit candidate statements to run for down-ballot offices on the No Labels ticket something the group had tried to block so as to avoid being categorized as a political party, which could trigger requirements to disclose No Labels donors, who have so far been kept secret.

For different reasons, the Arizona candidates who are seeking the No Labels line could prove awkward for the movement.

One of them, Tyson Draper, a high school coach from Thatcher, Ariz., is seeking the groups line to run for the Senate. In an interview last week, he called himself a centrist political newcomer who had never sought public office before. A day later, he filed papers to begin a movement to recall Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat.

The other would-be No Labeler is Richard Grayson, an assistant librarian at a community college south of Phoenix.

Mr. Grayson, 72, is seeking the No Labels nomination for the states Corporation Commission, which regulates public utilities. He has appeared as a candidate for office dozens of times since 1982, and said he was a Biden supporter.

Im a perennial candidate whose goal is to torture No Labels, he said. Im enjoying it immensely. Im tormenting them.

Rebecca Davis OBrien contributed reporting.

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Biden Allies Try to Squash Third-Party Candidates - The New York Times