The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Probe Trump’s Scottish spending spree: Greens
Party calls for unexplained wealth order
Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to take legal action to force US President Donald Trump to reveal how he could afford his Scottish golf resorts, amid concerns about possible money laundering.
Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said the first minister should apply to the Court of Session to obtain an unexplained wealth order over the purchase of land for Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire and the Trump Turnberry resort in Ayrshire
Such orders can be issued by the courts to compel their target to reveal the source of funding.
Mr Harvie said the Scottish Government needed to act after the US House of Representatives heard about potential money laundering.
Raising the issue at First Minister’s Questions, the Green MSP said there “remain big questions over Trump’s business dealings in Scotland”.
He added: “The purchase of Menie and the Turnberry golf resort were part of Trump’s huge cash spending spree in the midst of a global financial crisis.”
Campaigners contacted Ms Sturgeon almost a year ago with concerns, he said.
Ms Sturgeon told Mr Harvie he was raising “serious issues”, adding: “I don’t want to give him answers without the full information in front of me.”
She vowed to look back at the correspondence, saying she would “come back to him after I have had the chance to look into this in more detail”.
The first minister told MSPs: “I think most people here would recognise that I am no defender of Donald Trump, of his politics or any of his other dealings.”
Following FMQs, Ms Sturgeon’s spokesman revealed the Scottish Government had responded to the campaigners in May last year telling them it had forwarded the request to the lord advocate.
Ms Sturgeon was challenged to “rip up” a Scottish Government agreement on Heathrow expansion after a court ruled a third runway was unlawful.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said a memorandum of understanding between the airport and the Scottish Government was a mistake.
Ms Sturgeon said: “The decision on Heathrow expansion is not for the Scottish Government, it is not within our power or areas of responsibility.
“What we did say is that if that was going ahead, then any economic benefit of that should not miss out Scotland.”