NEW YORK — Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday against New York state Attorney General Letitia James in an attempt to halt her long-running civil probe into possible fraud by the former president’s sprawling 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 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 has turned her office into the “right arm” of the Democratic Party.
When James dropped out of the gubernatorial race on 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. 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.
Her probe 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 publicly criticized the Trump Organization over its responses to subpoenas as part of the civil investigation.
After a state Supreme Court order in September instructed the organization to comply with subpoenas, James’ office said in a statement that its work would “continue undeterred because no one is above the law.”
The civil investigation cannot produce criminal charges, but it could lead to a lawsuit.
Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said in a statement on Monday that James was engaged in a “bitter crusade” against Trump.
“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 to punish her political opponent in its tracks.”
James said Trump was again engaging in stall tactics and suggested Trump was attempting to use his name and power to freeze the probe.
“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 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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