Trump sued NY Attorney General Letitia James over investigations into his business

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Former President Donald Trump sued New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday, seeking a court order to stop his long -running investigation into civil tax fraud in his company’s business practices.

“In the words of Letitia James,‘ no one is above the law ’ – not even the attorney general of the state of New York,” said Trump and Trump’s organization in the federal case, accusing James of “exploiting” he. power.

“His mission is guided solely by political anger and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen whom he views as a political opponent,” the lawsuit said.

James responded with a statement accusing Trump and his company of repeatedly seeking to delay his investigation.

“To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization can dictate if and where they will be held accountable for their actions,” he said. “Our investigation will continue unabated because no one is above the law, not even someone named Trump.”

Trump responded in his own statement, saying: “It’s not about delay, it’s about our Constitution! You are nothing but a corrupt official doing your party’s dirty work. You shouldn’t be in office.”

The extraordinary lawsuit, first reported by The New York Times, seeks a court order declaring that Trump’s rights were violated and stopped James ’civil investigation, as well as his involvement in the district attorney’s criminal investigation. of Manhattan in his company. It argues that Trump is a victim of “discrimination in discrimination” and that James should be prevented from “engaging in any way in any civil or criminal action against” Trump and his company.

Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said, “We intend not only to hold him accountable for his outright constitutional violations, but to stop his bitter crusade to punish his political opponent in its paths.”

James requested that Trump be interviewed for investigation this month. Another lawyer for Trump, Ronald Fischetti, dismissed the move at the time as “purely political.”

“They’ve been investigating it for three years. We’re not worried about it, because he didn’t do anything wrong,” Fischetti said, referring to Trump.

James is investigating whether the Trump Organization committed fraud in reporting the value of certain assets to banks and tax authorities, and other top executives have been questioned, including Trump’s son Eric Trump. James’ office is considering whether to file a civil lawsuit against the company.

James is also assisting the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation into allegations of tax fraud schemes at Trump’s company. The district attorney’s office has sued the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, of tax fraud this year. Both were not guilty.

Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the investigations. He called James “corrupt” and accused him of engaging in a “witch hunt” with political motives.

When James, a Democrat, ran for office in 2018, he campaigned with a promise to hold Trump and his administration accountable. His office’s investigation into Trump’s charity foundation led to its dismantling.

James denied that the Trump Organization’s investigation was politically motivated, and he said it came from the testimony of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen before Congress in 2019 about Trump’s business practices.

Cohen testified that “Mr. Trump increased his total assets when it served his purposes” and “lowered his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.”

Cohen was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison for what a Manhattan federal judge called a “real smorgasbord” of criminal behavior, including facilitating secret payments to women claiming that they had ties to Trump and lied to Congress about Trump’s business dealings. Russia.

Dareh Gregorian is a political reporter for NBC News.

Adam Reiss contributed.

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