Trump files lawsuit against NY AG to halt review of personal trust

Former President Trump filed a lawsuit Wednesday against New York Attorney General Letitia James, accusing her of embarking on a “crusade” against him as he seeks to stop the Democrat from imposing restrictions on his business and personal life.

The 41-page lawsuit filed in Florida’s Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court asks for an injunction to halt the attorney general from appointing a watchdog or monitoring agent to review a revocable trust Trump uses to manage his assets as he awaits a tax fraud lawsuit.

In a statement Wednesday night, Trump said “Peekaboo” James is attacking “great and upstanding businesses which have done nothing wrong.”

“Crooked and highly partisan James now thinks it is the business of the State of New York to go after my revocable trust and pry into my private estate plan,” Trump wrote, “only to look for ways to recklessly injure me, my family, my businesses, and my tens of millions of supporters.

“If I were not elected President of the United States, and now leading in the polls by substantial margins against both Democrats and Republicans, this would not be happening,” the former president wrote.

A spokesperson for the New York Attorney General’s Office said “multiple judges have dismissed Donald Trump’s baseless attempts to evade justice, and no number of lawsuits will deter us from pursuing this fraud.”

“We sued Donald Trump because he committed extensive financial fraud,” the spokesperson said. “That fact hasn’t changed, and neither will our resolve to ensure that no matter how powerful or political one might be, no one is above the law.”

James filed a lawsuit against Trump, the Trump Organization and three of his children in September, seeking $250 million in financial penalties for alleged tax fraud.

She accuses the former president of falsely inflating and deflating his taxes in order to pay lower taxes and get better insurance coverage and of overstating his net worth by billions of dollars.

Pending the outcome of the lawsuit, James has asked a court to appoint an independent watchdog that would review the defendants’ financial procedures and disclosures, including for the movement of any assets.

Trump filed a lawsuit last week in a Manhattan, N.Y., court seeking to stop James from appointing the monitoring agent, which he says would nationalize his company in violation of the constitution.

In the Florida lawsuit, Trump claims there would be a deprivation of privacy and property rights if James gains control over his personal revocable trust.

The lawsuit additionally accuses James of being “guided solely by political animus and a desire
to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against President Trump” for political and professional gain.

–Updated on Nov. 3 at 8:23 a.m.