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Notes -
Page 15 of the indictment is worth a quick read. Trump is recorded with his knowledge and consent by an unnamed writer and a publisher working an upcoming book, at the time (July 2021) he was being critiqued in the press by a "Senior Military Official" (probably Mark Miley) who claimed he was concerned Trump was going to order him to attack [Country A] (probably Iran ) and he dissuaded Trump. Trump wants to convince the writer and publisher that this criticism is unwarranted, so he opens this recorded meeting by saying "Look What I found, this was [the Senior Military Official's] plan of attack, read it and just show... it's interesting". Later in the meeting, Trump says:
Further in the conversation
Overclassification is definitely a problem, and every administration seems to have some sort of classified documents mishandling scandal, from Colin Powell, to Petraeus, to Clinton, to Nikki Haley and now Trump. That said, recording yourself showing some random writer a 'plan of attack' for a potential invasion of "Country A" while bemoaning that you forgot to declassify them while you were president is an astounding own goal. I just have trouble buying this is 'the Deep State' cleverly ensnaring Trump when he could have just returned the documents or not done ridiculous things like this. It can be true that they are out to get him, and that also he lied to his lawyers and blundered into putting himself in legal jeopardy over an easily resolvable document handling issue.
I'm sure it's a 10,000ft overview rather than a plan with all the details and specifics, but that'd still probably be of interest to foreign intelligence. I'm also not sure how seriously to take Trump's claim that he just 'found' this document and it wasn't something he intentionally took from the White House. The fact that there was some sensitive intelligence in them suggests he didn't just mix them in with his mementos, but I also highly doubt he had some plan to sell this stuff to foreign countries. Why he took on serious legal jeopardy to hold on to these things seems pretty inexplicable other than the belief that he is personally immune to document retention laws or something.
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