Donald Trump is being sued – latest: Trump blames banks for tax scandal, says he can declassify paper by thinking about it

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday condemned former President Donald Trump’s approval of the January 2020 drone strike that killed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard general, General Qassem Soleimani, as a crime for which the former president must face justice.

Speaking at the 2022 United Nations General Assembly in New York, Raisi described the late military leader as “a man seeking freedom who became a martyr” at the hands of Mr Trump.

Andrew Feinberg listened to the remarks.

The lawsuit details how the Trump Organization falsified financial statements and the value of his assets, his children’s role in it all, and his bizarre attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills. Eric Garcia looks at the suit.

Former President Donald Trump has claimed that FBI agents who raided his Palm Beach, Florida home took his last will and testament along with 100 classified documents found in his office and a nearby storage room.

“They took a lot. I think they took my will. I found out yesterday,” the twice-impeached former president said during an appearance on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s nightly program of the same name.

Mr. Trump told Hannity that his lawyers and the National Archives “were having very nice conversations, no problems,” when “all of a sudden we got hit very hard by the FBI” on Aug. 8.

When the twice-impeached former president suggested FBI agents took his will, Hannity responded, “Am I in on it?”

Andrew Feinberg follows the news from Washington.

Donald Trump says he can declassify top-secret government documents just by “thinking about it.”

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the former president reiterated his claim that dozens of secret and classified papers seized from this Mar-a-Lago home had been declassified.

Asked about the process required for that, Mr. Trump said: “There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it. If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify, even thinking about it.”

Andrew Feinberg follow breaking news for The Independent.

Donald Trump is now defending his handling of highly sensitive national security documents, claiming in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday that the president can declassify documents just by saying or even thinking about it.

“You’re the president, you make that decision,” Trump said, adding, “I declassified the documents when they left the White House.”

The special master, who was asked by Trump’s team to oversee privilege issues surrounding White House documents seized by the FBI, was skeptical of this reasoning.

The official asked Trump’s lawyers to specify when and how Trump declassified the various documents found in the lawsuit.

So far, the former president’s lawyers have said they are “not in a position” to say whether Trump actually declassified the dossier before leaving office.

“You did file a lawsuit,” Judge Raymond Dearie said at Tuesday’s hearing.

The official said that unless Mr. Trump was willing to specifically challenge the classified status of various documents in his evidence, the special master was likely to side with the government’s argument that the documents remained protected.

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s where it ends,” Mr Dearie said, adding: “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

If that’s the case, taking the documents to Mar-a-Lago and storing them in an insecure manner, the Justice Department says, would likely violate federal law.

Here’s our coverage of the special development achievements of the last few days.

Donald Trump is painting an alternative factual narrative about his handling of classified White House records, the subject of an FBI investigation into the former president.

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump told Sean Hannity that he was not involved in packing up the presidential files when he left the White House, and described cordial conversations with the National Archives about its handling of the materials. So heartily, in fact, that Mr. Trump said the agency thanked him.

“There was nothing to hide,” Trump said.

“We were having very nice conversations, no problems, and suddenly we were having a very difficult time at the FBI,” he added.

In reality, in January 2022documentary agency said it had identified highly sensitive materials being stored at Mar-a-Lago and requested permission to alert the FBI.

In May, the agency also summarily rejected Trump’s arguments that his executive and attorney-client privilege protected the release of the documents.

Donald Trump is using his Fox News interview to retract one of the key claims in the New York attorney general’s recent lawsuit against him: that he inflated the value of the Trump Organization’s assets to gain financial benefit.

The former president told host Sean Hannity on Wednesday that his company has always offered a disclaimer to potential clients not to rely solely on their internal assessments.

“What we’re doing is, here’s the financial report, but be careful. It may not be true,” Trump said, describing the process. “Get your people. Use your own appraiser. Use your own lawyers. Don’t rely on us. And then they sued us.”

Donald Trump continued to reject a $250 million lawsuit filed by the New York state attorney general against him and the Trump Organization, accusing them of years of financial crimes. “This was just a continuation of the witch hunt that started when I went down the escalator of Trump Tower,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Fox News on Wednesday.

Here’s our story about the suit.

The interview with host Sean Hannity, which airs at 6:00 PM ET on Fox News, is sure to make headlines.

See the former president’s comments here.

We will follow the action live.