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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Namita Singh and Oliver O'Connell

Trump news – live: Trump blames banks for tax scandal and says he can declassify papers by thinking about it

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Trump claims he can declassify top secret documents just ‘by thinking about it’

Donald Trump has claimed that as president he had the authority to declassify top secret documents just “by thinking about it”, as he blamed banks themselves for failing to check his company’s valuations.

He was speaking on Fox News after New York’s attorney general accused the Trump Organisation of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars and habitually misleading banks.

Dubbing it “the art of the steal”, Letitia James in her suit has also named his children Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump as defendants.

The 222-page suit detailed instances of alleged fraud, many involving claims made on annual financial statements that Mr Trump would give to banks, business associates and financial magazines as proof of his riches as he sought loans and deals.

Also under probe for removing government-owned documents from the White House and taking them to his Florida estate, Mr Trump told Sean Hannity that “there doesn’t have to be a process” for declassifying documents “if you’re the president of the United States”.

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