(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) With her own re-election poll numbers flagging, New York Attorney General Letitia James kept media waiting roughly 75 minutes past start time to announce what has long been a foregone conclusion: that the partisan political climber will file a ludicrous lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, his children and family business to cap off a three-year fishing expedition on which she previously had campaigned.
At the Wednesday morning press conference, James claimed her investigation uncovered potential criminal violations, including falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud, conspiracy and bank fraud.
“Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself, and cheat the system, thereby cheating all of us,” she said.
The goal, the attorney general’s office has asserted, was to burnish Trump’s billionaire image and the value of his properties when doing so gave him an advantage, while playing down the value of assets at other times for tax purposes.
Trump has defended this as standard business practice, saying that it is not illegal to have good accountants. However, James has made clear her political motives since before her 2018 election, making such a lawfare attack the centerpiece of her campaign.
Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said the lawsuit “is neither focused on the facts nor the law—rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda.”
“It is abundantly clear that the Attorney General’s Office has exceeded its statutory authority by prying into transactions where absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place,” Habba said. “We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority, and we look forward to defending our client against each and every one of the Attorney General’s meritless claims.”
The former president did not immediately respond himself to the suit but said recently in response to another lawfair suit being waged in Georgia by equally corrupt Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis that he would not be undettered from running again as a result of the legal intimidation tactics.
Trump also faces a high profile Justice Department probe of his possession of allegedly classified documents at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago; as well as House Democrats’ ongoing Jan. 6 committee probe, which has yet to yield any actionable information.
Additionally, James said she planned to refer even more charges to the U.S. attorney in for the Southern District of New York, as well as to the IRS based on her probe.
Her lawsuit, filed in state court in New York, names Trump’s three eldest children—Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump—as defendants, along with two longtime company executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney.
“Letitia James is the most corrupt Attorney General in United States History—she campaigned on the promised to sue my father… watch for yourself!” Eric Trump wrote on Truth Social, alongside a Rumble video slamming her partisan attack.
Although waylaid at times by investigations into the National Rifle Association and Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo—as well as her failed bid in the gubernatorial primary to replace Cuomo—James has remained unwavering in her determination to take down the Orange Man.
Oftentimes, she colluded with former Manhattan Attorney General Cyrus Vance Jr., sharing information—despite the troubling legal implications of doing so—as James waged her civil suit and Vance a parallel criminal case, which forced Trump and others to plead the Fifth in a civil deposition rather than do anything to damage their defense in the latter probe.
During her press conference, James rattled off a litany of absurd penalties she planned to pursue, including a $250 million civil judgement.
She also is seeking the following punitive measures:
- Prohibit the Trumps from businesses engaged in the alleged fraud and wants an independent monitor appointed for no less than five years to oversee the Trump Organization’s compliance, financial reporting, valuations and disclosures to lenders, insurers and tax authorities
- Replace the current trustees of Trump’s revocable trust, which controls his business interests, with independent trustee
- Bar Trump and the Trump Organization from entering into commercial real estate acquisitions for five years and from obtaining loans from banks in New York for five years
- Permanently ban Trump and his three eldest children from serving as an officer or director in any New York corporation or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in New York State
- Permanently bar Weisselberg and McConney from serving in the financial control function of any New York corporation or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in New York State.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at truthsocial.com/@bensellers. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
