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

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

Speaking at the 2022 UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Raisi described the late military leader as a “freedom-loving man who was martyred” at the hands of Mr Trump.

Andrew Feinberg listens to the comments.

Details how the Trump Organization falsified financial statements and the value of its assets, the role of its children in all of this, and its bizarre attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills. Eric Garcia sees the suite.

Former President Donald Trump claims that FBI agents who conducted a court-authorized search of his Palm Beach, Florida home took his last will and testament in addition to 100 classified documents found in his office and a nearby storage room.

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

Mr Trump told Hannity that his lawyers and the National Archives and Records Administration were “negotiating very well, no problem”, when on August 8 “all of a sudden we got hit very hard by the FBI”.

When the twice-impeached former president suggested that FBI agents had taken his will, Hannity responded: “Am I in?”

Andrew Feinberg Following news from Washington.

Donald Trump says he may release top secret government documents “after thinking about it”.

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the former president repeated his claim that dozens of classified and confidential documents seized from the Mar-a-Lago home had been released.

Asked about the process needed to do 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 might even think about it and classify it.”

Andrew Feinberg Following breaking news for freedom.

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

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

The special master, whom the Trump team requested be appointed to oversee privilege issues surrounding White House documents seized by the FBI, is skeptical of this rationale.

The official asked Mr. Trump’s lawyers to specify when and how Mr. Trump released various documents recovered in the case.

So far, the former president’s lawyers have said they were “not in a position” to say whether the records at issue were actually released by Mr Trump before he left office.

“You brought a case,” Judge Raymond Derry said at a hearing Tuesday.

The official said that unless Mr. Trump is willing to specifically challenge the classified status of various documents, including his own evidence, the special master will likely side with the government’s argument that the documents remain protected.

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of it,” Mr. Derry said, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

If so, taking the documents to Mar-a-Lago and storing them in an unsafe manner, as the Justice Department alleges, would likely violate federal law.

Here is our report on special master development in recent days.

Donald Trump is drawing an alternative facts-style narrative about his handling of classified White House records, which are the subject of an FBI investigation into the former president.

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Mr. Trump told Sean Hannity that he was not involved in packing up the president’s records as he left the White House and described cordial conversations with the National Archives about handling his materials. So cordial, in fact, that Mr Trump said the company was thanking him.

“There was nothing that was hidden,” Mr Trump said.

“We were having a very nice discussion, no problem, and all of a sudden we got hit hard by the FBI,” he added.

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

In May, the agency summarily rejected Mr. Trump’s argument that his executive and attorney-client privilege protected the handover of documents.

Donald Trump is using his Fox News interview to push back on one of the key claims in a recent lawsuit against him from the New York attorney general’s office: that he inflated the value of Trump Organization assets to obtain financial benefits.

The former president told anchor Sean Hannity on Wednesday that his firm always offers potential clients a disclaimer not to rely on their internal assessments.

“What we do is, here are the financial statements, but be careful. It may not be accurate,” Mr. Trump said, describing the process. “Get your own people. Use your own evaluator. Use your own lawyer. Don’t rely on us. And then they filed a case against us.”

Donald Trump continues to fend off a $250 million lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general alleging years of financial crimes against him and the Trump Organization. “It was a continuation of a witch hunt that started when I got off the escalator at Trump Tower,” Fox News’ Sean Hannity told Fox News on Wednesday.

Here is our story about the suit.

The conversation with host Sean Hannity, which airs on Fox News at 6pm ET, is sure to make headlines.

Watch the speech of the former president here.

We will follow the action live.