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Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to take legal action to force Donald Trump to reveal how he could afford his Scottish golf resorts.

Green MSP Patrick Harvie said the First Minister should apply for an unexplained wealth order over the purchase of land for Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire and the Trump Turnberry resort in Ayrshire

Orders can be issued by courts to compel their target to reveal the source of funding .

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 Harvie 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.

Harvie said: "Trump's known sources of income don't explain where the money came from for these huge cash transactions.

"There are reasonable grounds for suspecting that his lawfully obtained income was insufficient.

"Scottish ministers can apply via the Court of Session for an unexplained wealth order, a tool designed for precisely these kinds of situations."

He added: "We need to be given confidence that the Government will show leadership and use the powers available to them.

"Will the First Minister seek an unexplained wealth order and make it clear that Scotland is not a country where anyone with the money can buy whatever land and property they want, no questions asked?"

Sturgeon told Harvie he was raising "serious issues", adding: "I don't want to give him answers without the full information in front of me."

She promised to "come back to him after I have had the chance to look into this in more detail".

The First Minister said: "I think most people here would recognise that I am no defender of Donald Trump, of his politics or any of his other dealings."

Sturgeon's spokesman later revealed the Scottish Government had responded to the campaigners in May last year telling them it had forwarded the request to the top law officer, the lord advocate.