NEW YORK — Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday against New York state Attorney General Letitia James in an attempt to pause her long-running civil probe into possible fraud by the former president’s sprawling family business.
The suit, which arrived after James’ office requested testimony from Trump, paints the investigation as politically motivated and claims James’ office issued “overreaching and irrelevant” subpoenas.
James, a Democrat who dropped out of the New York governor’s race this month, opened the investigation into the Trump Organization in 2019 after Michael Cohen, Trump’s onetime lawyer, said the Queens-born Republican had inflated his assets in financial documents.
James’ office is also working with the Manhattan district attorney in a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization.
The lawsuit filed Monday said James’ probes are “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 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,” said the 30-page suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
The suit asked the court to “immediately cease or, at a minimum, appropriately limit” James’ investigations into Trump.
James quickly accused Trump of engaging in stall tactics. “Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump,” she said in a statement.
Legal experts, meanwhile, expressed skepticism at the former commander in chief’s complaint and described his effort as unusual and premature.
“It seems like political theater,” said Gregory Germain, a professor at Syracuse University Law School, adding that Trump’s complaint appeared “very unlikely to succeed.”
Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School and a former federal prosecutor, called the lawsuit a “cheap publicity stunt.”
“Until she files charges, he has not suffered a legally cognizable harm,” McQuade said. “It seems that any lawyer who did even a little bit of research would know that this is not a valid use of the court.”
The suit outlined a lengthy history of comments criticizing Trump made by James, a former city councilwoman from Brooklyn who previously served as New York City’s public advocate.
The court papers claimed that James “lacked any basis to investigate Trump” and that she has turned her office into the “right arm” of the Democratic Party.
When James dropped out of the gubernatorial race Dec. 9, she said she had decided to return her focus to her work as attorney general. She was considered the most significant threat to Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary before abruptly leaving the race, and her exit shocked political observers.
“There are a number of important investigations and cases that are underway, and I intend to finish the job,” she said in a statement at the time, adding that she was running for reelection as attorney general.
In August, James’ office completed an investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and found he had sexually harassed at least 11 women. The probe led Cuomo to resign in disgrace. Hochul, the former lieutenant governor, took his place.
“Tell Letitia that she is not dealing with the Cuomo brothers,” Trump said in a statement on Monday that addressed James directly. “This is not about delay, this is about our Constitution! You are nothing but a corrupt official doing the dirty work of your party.”
James’ probe into the Trump organization has drawn criticism for its glacial pace, but it has faced roadblocks.
Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, at one point refused to provide testimony. He ultimately took questions after a judge ordered him to sit for a deposition.
James’ office has repeatedly criticized the Trump Organization over its responses to subpoenas as part of the civil investigation. The civil probe cannot produce criminal charges, but it could lead to a lawsuit.
Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said in a statement Monday that James had exhibited “callous disregard” for the ethical obligations of her post.
“She has short changed the state by commencing this partisan investigation and has forever tarnished the sanctity of her office,” Habba said in the statement. “By filing this lawsuit, we intend to not only hold her accountable for her blatant constitutional violations, but to stop her bitter crusade.”
But Bradley Moss, a Washington-based national security lawyer, said Trump’s suit was baseless and that he was not aware of any example of a court shutting down a similar investigation on the basis of alleged political bias.
Moss called the complaint a “desperate action.”
“There’s no context in which Mr. Trump can order the attorney general to stop investigating him,” he said. “If he could do that, the mob could have done that. Drug dealers could do that everyday. White-collar criminals at major banking institutions that get hit with fraud inquiries, they could do that. It doesn’t work that way.”
James suggested Trump was attempting to use his name and power to freeze the probe. She vowed it would not work.
“The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings,” James said in the statement. “To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions.”
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