explanation for how he declassified those documents. he appeared on sean hannity s fox news program from mar-a-lago. in the interview trump said presidents can declassify documents just by quote thinking about it. you had said on truth social a number of times, you did declassify. i did declassify, yes. was there a process? there doesn t have to be a process, as i understand it. different people say different things. if you re the president of the united states, you can declassify by saying it s declassified, even by thinking about it. because you re sending it to mar-a-lago or to wherever you re sending it, and there doesn t have to be a process. there can be a process but there doesn t have to be. you re the president, you make that decision. when you send, it s declassified. i declassified everything. then there s this line of reasoning from trump, which seemed to surprise even sean
investigative reporter, suzanne craig, she has reported extensively on the finances and taxes of donald trump, and won a pulitzer prize for that work, and msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos, and andrew weissman, the former general counsel for the fbi. good morning to you all. just as a big picture look at what we re talking about here. there s so much going on around donald trump, around the elections, around his finances. it s hard to keep track. so what exactly are we talking about here in this lawsuit from the new york state attorney general? it s important to note that this is a civil lawsuit. it s not criminal. so if it ends up, you know in a court, he faces civil fines, and there are going to be other remedies, she wants to limit their ability to do business in new york. she wants to limit their lending, limit their, you know, ability to build in new york for a certain amount of period, so those are sort of the remedies.
spent a huge portion of the show talking about the legal peril donald trump is in, and yet his control over the republican party near complete. alayna treene thank you so much for being up with us this morning. and thank you that all of you. morning joe starts now. donald trump began his day by getting hit with the most massive lawsuit he has faced a lawsuit that could wipe him out and bankrupt his adult children. donald trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system. and while it is not a criminal case, new york officials are turning some of their findings over to federal prosecutors regarding possible criminal acts they uncovered. in another blow, tonight there is breaking news on the investigation into the classified documents that trump
alexander has details. reporter: a legal move that could shut down the empire that bears the former president s name, the trump organization. claiming you have money you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal. it s the art of the steal. reporter: new york attorney general letitia james announcing the civil lawsuit after a three-year investigation, alleging the company and its leadership, including trump, three of his children falsely valued assets for their own financial gain. the pattern of fraud and deception that was used by mr. trump is astounding. reporter: the alleged scheme fought to inflate mr. trump s own net worth by billions of dollars. by helping the company secure more favorable terms for loans and insurance. among the examples she cites mr. trump s property at 40 wall street that james said in 2011 he declared was worth $524 million even though an appraiser valued it at just 200
officer goodman. senate majority whip dick durbin will be here with his reaction to the lawsuit filed by the new york attorney general against donald trump. also ahead an nbc exclusive investigation reveals scientists working at the foremost national security lab were paid as much as a million dollars to help china develop cutting edge weapons. and u.s. ambassador to the u.n., linda thomas-greenfield joins the table following president biden s address to the united nations. you re watching morning joe. we ll be right back. g morning we ll be right back.