Trump Sues New York Attorney General Letitia James In Attempt To Halt Probe

Former President Donald Trump filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) in an attempt to block her investigation into his business.

The investigation has been underway for two years. It seeks to determine whether Trump’s business illegally inflated its assets to mislead investors and lenders, and to receive tax breaks.

“The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings and now Donald Trump and his namesake company have filed a lawsuit as an attempted collateral attack on that investigation,” James said in a statement.

In the suit, Trump’s lawyers claim that James’s probe seeks to sabotage Trump politically and that the probe violates Trump’s constitutional rights.

“The investigations commenced by James are in no way connected to legitimate law enforcement goals, but rather, are merely a thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates,” the complaint alleges. “Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent.”

The suit alleges that James has exhibited unconstitutional behavior, “including but not limited to her abuse of criminal and civil process, the commencement of arbitrary fishing expeditions, and collective misconduct in targeting Plaintiffs in bad faith and solely for political purposes, deprived Plaintiffs of due process of law and impermissibly infringed upon their constitutional rights.”

James, however, sees this suit as another attempt to obscure justice. “To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions,” she said. “Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.”

Earlier this month, James announced that she would no longer campaign for governor of New York, and would instead seek reelection as attorney general.

On Monday, Trump publicly slammed James. In his statement, he defended his suit and said, directed at the attorney general, “This is not about delay, this is about our Constitution. You are nothing but a corrupt official doing the dirty work of your party. You should not be in office. This could well be the reason you were just rejected by the people of NY in your inept run for governor. You didn’t quit for a higher purpose, you quit because your poll numbers were atrocious—you didn’t have a chance. New York got lucky!”

James’s investigation is occurring in parallel with a criminal investigation against Trump by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. (D).

Vance has been collaborating with James’s probe. In addition, earlier in 2021, Vance’s investigation charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with 15 felony counts due to an alleged tax evasion scheme.