Former president Donald trump filed a complaint against New York Attorney GeneralI Letitia james Monday in an attempt to block his civil investigation into whether the real estate mogul has submitted bogus real estate values to potential lenders.
The lawsuit claims James’ investigation is politically motivated and asks a judge to stop the work of the attorney general, The New York Times reported. The costume arrives more than a week after the Time reported that James would attempt to subpoena Trump for questioning next month.
“The investigations initiated by James are in no way related to legitimate law enforcement objectives, but are a thinly veiled effort to publicly slander Trump and his associates,” the lawsuit says. “Her mission is guided solely by political animosity and the desire to harass, intimidate and retaliate against a private citizen whom she considers to be a political opponent.”
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, called the investigation “partisan” and said in a statement that the aim of the prosecution was to stop the “bitter crusade to punish its political opponent”.
James dropped out of the New York governor’s race on Dec. 9, and is considering running for re-election for her post as New York state attorney general, saying she had given up to complete “a number of important pending investigations and cases.”
James said in a statement that Trump would not dictate the course of her investigation, although she did not say whether her investigation into the former Republican president was the one she envisioned when she took her hat off from the ring.
“The Trump Organization has continuously sought to delay our investigation into its trade relationship and now Donald Trump and his namesake company have filed a complaint as an attempted collateral attack on this investigation,” James said in a statement. “To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization can dictate whether and where they will answer for their actions. Our investigation will continue without being discouraged because no one is above the law, not even someone called Trump. “
The Attorney General’s civil investigation, which began in March 2019, is similar to a separate Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation Cyrus Vance, Who earlier this year indicted on Trump organization and its financial director, Allen Weisselberg. According to the indictment, Weisselberg evaded taxes to score $ 1.76 million in benefits, like a luxury apartment on the Upper West Side, rented Mercedes-Benz and private lessons to loved ones.
Trump was not charged in connection with Vance’s investigation and was not individually charged with wrongdoing. A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Update: This story has been updated to include statements by counsel for Trump and James.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
