(RepublicanInformer.com)- Former President Donald Trump is putting direct pressure on Letitia James, the attorney general in New York, filing a lawsuit this week to try to stop her from leading a civil suit into his business practices, as well as bar her from taking part in a separate criminal investigation.
Trump and his family’s real estate business, filed the federal suit in Albany, New York, on Monday. It argues that James is participating in both of those inquiries only for political reasons.
The suit cited a list of public attacks James has initiated on Trump, some of which happened when James was running for attorney general. These are reasons why the lawsuit says James violated Trump’s rights under the Constitution.
As the suit reads:
“Her mission is 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 Democrat James said Trump’s latest lawsuit wouldn’t stop her from continuing the investigation. In a statement, she said:
“The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings. To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions.”
Trump released a statement of his own on Monday, saying that James’ investigation is “a continuation of the political witch hunt that has gone on against me. This is not about delay, this is about our Constitution!”
Many legal experts told The New York Times they believe that it’ll be challenging for Trump and his legal team to prevail in this case. Most said the most a judge would likely do would be say James’ statements were inappropriate, but not stop her investigation or consider her comments to violate Trump’s constitutional right.
Some are saying that this lawsuit is a just an effort by Trump to delay the investigation, which he was successful at doing in a separate criminal investigation being conducted by Cyrus Vance, the Democratic district attorney in Manhattan.
Trump claimed to be the victim of political harassment in that case, too. While the Supreme Court ultimately rejected his claims, the suit did delay the fight over his tax returns for a while.
James’ office is helping Vance’s team in the criminal investigation. That is centered on whether the former president inflated the value of his assets fraudulently in an attempt to trick banks into extending him loans.
Prosecutors questioned a former accountant for Trump in front of a grand jury recently, which marks a critical point in the investigation. Vance only has a week or so left in office, but Alvin Bragg, his successor, could eventually seek to indict Trump if the prosecutor’s office determines the former president committed a crime.
James has been investigating Trump from a civil standpoint since March of 2019. That investigation is also focusing on how the former president put a value on his various properties.
If the investigation reveals any wrongdoing, the AG could file a civil lawsuit against Trump, though it wouldn’t include criminal charges.
