Stephanie Grisham served as Trump’s press secretary and communications director for nine months in 2019 and 2020. || Flickr
Allie Feinberg
Arizona Republic
Stephanie Grisham, a veteran of Arizona politics who served as press secretary for then-President Donald Trump, became the most recent of his administration’s alumni to highlight his cavalier treatment of classified information.
Grisham, who served as Trump’s press secretary and communications director for nine months in 2019 and 2020, said in an interview with MSNBC she saw him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home, while she was working for Trump.
“I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio. So he has no respect for classified information. Never did,” she told MSNBC’s Alex Witt.
Grisham also said, “To be showing it to people who haven’t gone through the extreme vetting that you go through to get a clearance, it’s you know, it’s a disservice to the country, but it also puts people in danger potentially.”
Later in the interview, she said, “I can’t stress enough how by being so loose with this stuff, he’s potentially putting people in danger.”
Before joining Trump’s campaign in 2015, Grisham served as spokesperson for then-Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and the Republican majority at the Arizona House of Representatives.
She defended Horne when he was accused of using his office as a campaign office, and when he was the subject of an FBI investigation.
In 2012, she took a break from her job in Horne’s office to be a press aide for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
After returning to Horne’s office after Romney’s campaign, Grisham assumed the role of spokesperson for the Arizona House of Representatives.
She supported then-House Speaker David Gowan’s issuing of an order that required reporters to undergo extensive background checks before accessing the House floor to speak with lawmakers.
Grisham began working with Trump in the early days of his campaign in 2016. Earlier in his presidential term, she served as a top aide to first lady Melania Trump.
