Anthony Pratt, one of Australia’s richest men, has repeatedly said that former President Donald Trump shared sensitive information with him, including discussions of Trump's calls with the leaders of Ukraine and Iraq, according to The New York Times and "60 Minutes Australia."
Pratt is listed as a potential witness against Trump in the felony case brought by special counsel Jack Smith relating to Trump's mishandling of classified information. Pratt's testimony could potentially expose the former president to further legal risks, including additional charges under the Espionage Act, legal experts say.
Pratt reportedly has a fortune measured in the billions, largely built on the paper and packaging industry. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on memberships at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago resort after Trump became president, which led to a friendship between the two and reported conversations in which the former president allegedly shared sensitive or classified information with Pratt.
In one recording that was made public Sunday by the Times, Pratt recalled a conversation with Trump from 2019 in which the then-president told him about recently ordering an airstrike against Iranian-linked militants in Iraq.
"It hadn't even been on the news yet and he said, 'So I just bombed Iraq today,’" Pratt said.
In a different conversation with Pratt, Trump discussed his now-notorious phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which helped lead to Trump’s first impeachment.
In that call, Trump urged Zelenskyy to help him win the 2020 election by investigating Joe and Hunter Biden for unsubstantiated claims of corrupt business dealings in Ukraine.
“That was nothing compared to what I usually do,” Trump told Pratt, according to the tape. “That’s nothing compared to what we usually talk about.”
Trump’s pattern of sharing sensitive government information with Pratt could create additional legal jeopardy in the form of more Espionage Act charges similar to those already filed relating to his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House, said Javed Ali, a former senior counterterrorism official at the Department of Homeland Security, in an interview with Salon.
Under the Espionage Act, Ali said, "the willful transmission of national security information to unauthorized persons" could provide a basis for such charges, "although the burden of proof would fall upon the prosecution to prove that President Trump did so with Pratt beyond a reasonable doubt."
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It’s unclear whether prosecutors had already obtained the tapes that were disclosed to the public on Sunday, but the new recordings offer Pratt’s private thoughts about Trump’s behavior and his reasons for forming a close relationship with the ex-president.
In one recorded conversation, Pratt explained that he had cozied up to Trump and his allies because they were “like the mafia,” adding, “You want to be a customer, not a competitor.”
Trump "knows exactly what to say and what not to say so that he avoids jail, Pratt said, "but gets so close to it that it looks to everyone like he’s breaking the law. Like, he won’t go up to someone and say, ‘I want you to kill someone.’ He’ll say, he’ll send someone to tell someone to kill someone.”
If Trump indeed shared classified information regarding key U.S. national security priorities with Pratt — a foreign national who was clearly not authorized to receive such information — that leads to compounded security risks, Ali explained.
“The potential risk to national security in cases like this is how then that information is passed to other individuals who similarly were not authorized to receive such," he said, along with whether "there is any compromise to intelligence sources and methods or whether U.S. policy becomes affected as a result of those unauthorized disclosures.”
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Trump has already been indicted for unlawfully mishandling and retaining classified materials, as former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani observed. Whether or not Trump provided that classified information to a third party is not directly relevant to those charges, Rahmani added, but certainly does not help the former president's defense.
In response to the Times report about Pratt, Trump took to his social media outlet, Truth Social, to lash out at the newspaper. He said that he and Pratt had spoken about creating jobs in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but also appeared to insult the Australian billionaire as a "weirdo" and claim the story was politically motivated.
“The Failing New York Times story, leaked by Deranged Jack Smith and the Biden ‘Political Opponent Abuser’ DOJ, about a red haired weirdo from Australia, named Anthony Pratt, is Fake News,” Trump posted.
Trump and Pratt certainly appeared to enjoy a friendly relationship during the former's time in office. In 2019, Trump helped open a new Pratt Industries plant in Ohio, where he referred to Pratt as a “friend” and described him as “one of the most successful men in the world,” The Guardian reported.
"Pratt’s testimony will be powerful for jurors hearing the case," Rahmani said. "The Department of Justice will argue that these laws exist for a reason, and that Trump compromised American security interests and that of our allies. Pratt’s testimony will also be important at sentencing if Trump is convicted. Prosecutors will argue that Trump should receive prison time because of his flagrant disregard of the law."
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