In a draft copy of a speech Pratt delivered to a Jewish group in late 2019, Pratt describes how he “became a member of the Mar-a- Lago resort” as a “strategic” play to secure access to Trump.

“My membership has given me a seat at the table where the president relaxes socially and mingles with his guests … The key thing being a member at Mar-a-Lago has done has been that I see the president a few times a year.”

Pratt has previously not responded to requests for comments from this masthead about his relationship with Trump. CNN said Pratt had also previously declined to comment when approached on the topic and a representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Comment had also been sought by this masthead relating to claims made in the Butler interview.

The charges Trump faces over classified documents relate to material the former president took after leaving the White House in 2021 and which were stored in boxes all over his Mar-a-Lago resort, including “in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room”.

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They included information relating to nuclear programs and military vulnerabilities, to intelligence that should have only been shared with the intelligence heads of the Five Eyes” countries, including Australia.

While Trump has repeatedly denied the claims, Butler disagreed and outlined how he unknowingly participated in transporting boxes of classified documents.

“For [Trump] to get up there all the time and say the things he says about this being a witch hunt and everything. … He just can’t take responsibility for anything,” Butler said.

The latest revelations come after Pratt was in the spotlight last year amid a joint investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes, which uncovered separate audio recordings of Pratt talking about his relationship with “mafia”-like Trump and his claim of a $US1 million payment to Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

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The covert recordings also reveal that Pratt had claimed Trump disclosed non-public details about US military action in Iraq and a private conversation with Iraq’s leader.

Trump dismissed those accounts at the time, posting on social media that the stories “about a red-haired weirdo from Australia, named Anthony Pratt, is Fake News”.

However, the investigation substantiated previous reporting from America’s ABC News that suggested Trump shared more classified information than was previously known, and that Pratt had divulged that information with scores of people, including former prime ministers and journalists.

The Australian businessman could now be one of dozens of witnesses in the trial against Trump, although the starting court date is yet to be determined.

With eight months until the election, Trump has argued that he is immune from prosecution by the Presidential Records Act and that criminal law involving the mishandling of national security secrets can’t be applied to him as a former president.

Aileen Cannon, the judge overseeing the trial – who Trump appointed while he was president – has said she wants to hear oral arguments about Trump’s immunity claim this Thursday (Friday AEDT).

The Republican frontrunner also faces a trial in Washington DC for trying to overthrow the 2020 election, a trial in Georgia for trying to interfere in the election in that state, and a trial in New York, starting this month, over alleged hush money paid to a porn star with whom he had an affair.

“Not fair that the Radical Left Democrats are attempting to take me to trial smack in the middle of Election Season,” he wrote tonight. “It’s a Political Witch Hunt. This cannot be allowed to happen. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”