Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt was caught on audio revealing that then-President Donald Trump called him to tell him that he just bombed Iraq, Business Insider reported.
Pratt made news earlier this month after ABC News reported that the billionaire CEO of Visy Industries was reportedly interviewed by special counsel Jack Smith’s office about claims that Donald Trump discussed with him potentially sensitive information about US nuclear submarines.
According to a joint investigative report from The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and “60 Minutes Australia,” Trump called Pratt shortly after ordering airstrikes on Iraq in 2019.
The outlets obtained an undated recording of Pratt recounting some of his interactions with the former president in which he admitted that the first he heard about the airstrikes was in a phone call with Trump.
Pratt recounted Trump boasting that the Iraqi president called him afterward to say, “You just leveled my city.” According to Pratt, Trump claimed that he told Iraq’s president “What are you going to do about it?”
While the recording doesn’t specify what military operation Trump was boasting about, around the time of the phone call, the US launched a series of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against five facilities with links to the Iranian-backed terrorist group Kata’ib Hezbollah.
During last Sunday’s “60 Minutes Australia,” former national security advisor John Bolton said Trump’s disclosure of the airstrikes could have threatened the safety of US military personnel on the ground and the pilots conducting the strikes.
According to the October 5 report from ABC News, Pratt told the special counsel’s office that in April 2021, while making conversation with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, he brought up the US submarine fleet, a topic he had discussed with Trump in the past.
Pratt said he told Trump that he believed Australia should purchase submarines from the United States. An excited Trump then leaned toward Pratt and disclosed how many nuclear warheads US submarines typically carry and how close a US sub can get to a Russian sub without being detected.
Pratt then admitted to sharing that information with at least 45 other people, including journalists, employees of Visy Industries, officials from the Australian government, and three former Australian prime ministers.
