An article summarized by Axios:
Senior White House officials reportedly believe that Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan may have obtained audio recordings of highly sensitive Situation Room meetings for their upcoming book, “Regime Change”. The concern stems from the book's detailed, verbatim accounts of discussions involving topics such as the Iran conflict and the Epstein files. Administration officials reportedly fear that some of the government's most sensitive conversations may have been secretly recorded, which would represent a major security breach because personal recording devices are prohibited in the Situation Room.
The speculation intensified because excerpts published ahead of the book's release include direct quotations from top officials during classified discussions. White House officials have reportedly not challenged the accuracy of the quoted exchanges, including a remark attributed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and potential regime-change scenarios in Iran. Sources say President Donald Trump is particularly angry about the detailed behind-the-scenes accounts contained in the book.
However, there is no evidence that recordings were actually used. Haberman and Swan declined to comment, and journalism experts note that detailed dialogue in political books is often reconstructed through interviews with participants rather than audio recordings. The authors reportedly conducted more than 1,000 interviews while researching the book, making it possible that the conversations were recreated from firsthand accounts. Regardless of how the information was obtained, the controversy has generated significant attention for the book ahead of its June 23rd release.
