In a lawsuit filed on Monday, former President Donald Trump charged New York State Attorney General Letitia James with “allocat[ing] precious taxpayer resources towards a frivolous witch hunt. Plaintiffs [Trump and his company, Trump Organization LLC] now come before this Court to hold James accountable for her official misconduct and to preserve the integrity of the office she holds.”
Even before taking office, James, a Democrat and far-left activist long involved in New York politics, had targeted Trump, even building her election campaign for attorney general around him.
Her attacks began as she opened her campaign for AG in May 2018, making “taking on Donald Trump” the focal point of her campaign. She claimed, and continues to claim, that Trump had engaged in “public corruption” without any evidence to back it up. It was all political oratory.
She “shamelessly campaign[ed] on her unfounded allegations against Trump and his family,” says the suit, “in a misguided effort to garner media attention and promote her fundraising efforts.” She boldly declared that “New Yorkers need a fighter who will take on Donald Trump.… I’ll be that fighter. Join my campaign.”
On the Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue, she posted messages such as “I need your help in this fight against Donald Trump … and his harmful administration.”
At a political rally in July 2018, she said she would use the law as a “sword,” adding that if elected she would “look forward to going into the office of Attorney General every day, suing him, defending your rights, and then going home.”
The lawsuit claimed that James charged Trump with various crimes without knowing any facts — making them up along the way: “Defendant [James] boldly alleged that Trump was actively engaged in criminal conduct, despite having no knowledge of any specific wrongdoing or any insight into Trump’s business activities.”
It didn’t matter. The message was gaining traction, so it continued:
In [a video from September 12, 2018, James] baselessly accused Trump of a slew of crimes, including obstruction of justice and laundering money from foreign governments, and demanded that he be indicted….
Defendant’s call for Trump to be investigated was devoid of both fact and merit. Nevertheless, Defendant concluded by promising that “the days of Donald Trump are coming to an end.”
The day she won election as New York’s AG, James promised to “shin[e] a bright light into every dark corner of [Trump’s] real estate holdings.” Even before assuming office, she vowed to, said the lawsuit, “use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well.”
The lawsuit concluded its summary:
Defendant promised to investigate Trump dozens of times over seven months, all before she ever assumed office or was privy to a single fact known to law enforcement.
Defendant did not state a legal or factual basis for such promises. She could not. After all, her knowledge of Trump’s business activities was no greater than that of any other citizen.
Rather, her only justification for the forthcoming investigation was her political opposition to Trump.
Since then, James has sought every way possible to embarrass, shame, pressure, and harass Trump and sully the former president’s reputation. In covering the story, the New York Times essentially admitted that James is conducting a witch hunt, hoping to find something to hang around the former president’s neck:
If Ms. James were to find evidence of wrongdoing, she could file a lawsuit against Mr. Trump.
She started her “investigation” in March 2019, seeking information that would prove that Trump had, among other things, inflated the value of some of his real-estate holdings to obtain more favorable financing, while at the same time downgrading the values of others of his holdings for tax purposes.
She has ramped up her investigation. She said she would seek to question the former president under oath in January. The Northern District Court of New York now has the opportunity to quash her vindictive and politically charged investigation altogether.
