Overview
- Axios reported Sunday that top White House officials believe New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan may have obtained audio recordings of Situation Room meetings for the forthcoming book Regime Change.
- Independent recording devices are forbidden in the Situation Room, so officials say any verified tapes would represent an unusual and serious security breach for a room used for the president's most sensitive discussions.
- Excerpts the Times published ahead of the book included verbatim accounts of meetings on Iran policy and the Jeffrey Epstein files, including a quoted exchange about a possible pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell and a blunt remark attributed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
- Haberman and Swan have declined to comment, there has been no public verification of audio files, and White House aides are reported to be conducting internal leak investigations while publicly not disputing the quoted dialogue.
- The authors reportedly conducted more than 1,000 interviews for Regime Change, and the episode has raised legal and political questions about source methods, classified deliberations, and potential congressional or DOJ scrutiny.