NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump Wednesday denounced New York Attorney General Letitia James as “racist” after she filed a wide-ranging civil fraud suit against him, three of his children and their family real estate company.
“Another Witch Hunt by a racist Attorney General,” Trump wrote on his new social media site. “She is a fraud who campaigned on a “get Trump” platform, despite the fact that the city is one of the crime and murder disasters of the world under her watch!”
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump also denounced the suit as a “witch hunt” even as other top Republicans mostly kept quiet.
“The bulls--t Dem witch-hunt continues!” Trump Jr. tweeted, along with an unflattering photo of James.
Eric Trump, the other adult son of Donald Trump, also derided the suit as a “joke.”
“Not a political “witch hunt?!” What a joke…” Eric Trump tweeted.
The three Trump siblings are named in the suit, along with their father and longtime Trump Org CFO Allan Weisselberg, who recently pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with a separate fraud prosecution.
James suit cites a scheme that included at least 200 separate false claims about the values of Trump-owned properties. It aims to basically put the Trump Org out of business in New York state and hand it crippling fines.
Donald Trump and Eric Trump each invoked the Fifth Amendment hundreds of times when questioned by investigators from James’s office. Don Jr. and Ivanka willingly answered questions.
New York state Republican Party chair Nick Langworthy denounced the suit as “the most brazen political stunts I have seen in my lifetime.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., echoed the Trump sons, calling the suit the “Longest Witch Hunt in History!”
But other Trump loyalists stayed quiet, perhaps because the accusations involve the former president’s business dealings, not his actions as president or de facto leader of the GOP.
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