Report of Donald Trump Sharing Submarine Secrets Rocks Defense Community

Former members of the intelligence community have expressed their concern about reports that Donald Trump allegedly shared classified information about U.S. submarines with nuclear capability with an Australian businessman at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

According to reports by ABC News and The New York Times, citing sources familiar with the conversation, the former president told billionaire Anthony Pratt about the American fleet, including how many nuclear warheads they tended to carry and how close they were thought to be able to get to a Russian submarine without being detected, in April 2021.

ABC claimed that the alleged disclosure of classified information was reported to special counsel Jack Smith while investigating Trump's retaining of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and that FBI agents interviewed Pratt, who confirmed the conversation. The alleged disclosure was not included in the eventual indictment against Trump.

The conversation is said to have taken place in the context of Australia buying U.S.-made submarines, and Pratt is purported to have then shared the information allegedly disclosed by Trump with at least 45 other people. A Trump spokesperson did not deny the conversation took place, but said he "did nothing wrong."

"With due regard for the fact it's a single-source media report and the fact that special counsel, for whatever reason, chose not to use it for an indictment, with those caveats in mind, this is really to me a serious infraction," James Clapper, a former director of national intelligence under Barack Obama, who previously held high-ranking positions in the defense community, told CNN.

"It is unfortunately another in a long litany of violations of our national security by a failure to properly protect such sensitive information," he added. "If this involved sea-launch ballistic missiles and the subs that carry them, this is a part of our national strategic arsenal, which gets to the very essence of survival of the nation. So it's hard to overstate—if this is true—how serious this is by affirming knowledge of these submarines with foreigners."

Meanwhile, William Cohen, who served as secretary of defense under Bill Clinton, told the news channel that the alleged disclosure would not only be a violation of the law, but those with information from a high-ranking source would naturally want to tell others.

"It just spreads like wildfire. That's the danger: you're not just giving it to a friend, you're potentially giving it to enemies as well," he said.

"Out of the [nuclear] triad, the submarine is the one that is the most secure for us because it is not targetable," Cohen added. "They're special, and he's giving away special information on what is protecting us."

Newsweek approached a spokesperson for Trump via email for comment on Friday.

However, some former members of the Australian government have sought to play down the gravity of the alleged disclosure.

Joe Hockey, the Australian ambassador to the U.S. during the Trump administration, told the Times on Thursday: "If that's all that was discussed, we already know all that. 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."

A Trump spokesperson decried the apparent leak to multiple outlets, saying the information published was without "proper context and relevant information."

"The Department of Justice should investigate the criminal leaking, instead of perpetrating their baseless witch-hunts while knowing that President Trump did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency, and acted in a proper manner, according to the law," they added.

Following the supposed conversation between Trump and Pratt, President Joe Biden announced a defense pact with Australia and the U.K. in September 2021, in which the two Western nations would supply Australia with nuclear maritime technology, including between three and five Virginia-class, U.S.-made submarines.

Known as the AUKUS agreement, the deal is intended to facilitate the strengthening of Australia's navy and potentially act as a deterrent to China's growing military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.