Former President Trump is suing to block New York Attorney General Letitia James from continuing her civil investigation into his business practices.
In the lawsuit filed on Monday, Mr. Trump argues the attorney general has weaponized her office to serve her own Democratic political agenda by launching probes as “a thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates.”
“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 30-page lawsuit states.
“Even worse, rather than diligently prosecuting actual crimes in the State of New York — which are steadily on the rise — James has instead allocated precious taxpayer resources towards a frivolous witch hunt.”
The suit comes two weeks after Ms. James requested that he sit for a deposition on Jan. 7 as part of her investigation into whether his company, Trump Organization LLC, fraudulently inflated property values for better loan agreements or minimized them for tax benefits.
In the complaint, the former president points to various examples of Ms. James’ alleged bias against him, including her participation in protests against his administration following his inauguration in 2017.
In August of 2018, Ms. James said he “should be scared” about her upcoming term and the next month she said she would “never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president.”
In October, the attorney general said she “sued the Trump administration 76 times. But who’s counting?” She made the comments in a video announcing her bid for governor, which she suspended earlier this month, citing the need to finish “a number of important investigations and cases that are underway.”
Mr. Trump claims she lacked the proper legal basis to investigate him “and in doing so, she abandoned all pretenses of acting with impartiality and in accordance with prosecutorial standards.”
He also contends that she “relentlessly” pushed New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance to launch a criminal probe in May into the Trump Organization’s business dealings.
The organization and its finance chief Allen Weisselberg were named in the first criminal indictment and Mr. Weisselberg pleaded not guilty in July to charges in the alleged 15-year tax evasion scheme.
Mr. Trump claims Ms. James is leading the parallel civil and criminal investigations into his alleged unlawful business practices in an attempt to “erode” his constitutional rights.
He wants a judge to order Ms. James to stop the investigations or to “appropriately limit” them as the lawsuit plays out and to bar her from participating in any civil or criminal actions against him or his company.
In a statement, Ms. James said Mr. Trump filed the suit “as an attempted collateral attack” on her investigation into his business dealings.
“To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions,” she said. “Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.”
• Emily Zantow can be reached at ezantow@washingtontimes.com.
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