In response to her recent civil lawsuit against the former president and three of his adult children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Letitia James, the attorney general of New York state, alleging that she has engaged in a “relentless, pernicious, public, and unapologetic crusade” against him.
The lawsuit, which was submitted on Wednesday in a Florida circuit court, claims that the three times-married former president’s company, brand, and reputation will suffer “great harm” as a result of James’ suit, which she announced in a dramatic press conference in September. James has been repeatedly sued, twice been impeached, and is in grave legal jeopardy.
Trump’s own attorneys reportedly tried to prevent him from submitting what the New York Times referred to as “a tirade of a lawsuit” on Thursday, according to a report in the newspaper.
“Extraordinary wrongdoing requires extraordinary relief,” the complaint’s opening line reads.
The stated objective of James’ campaign against President Trump, a resident of Palm Beach County, Florida, is to destroy him personally, financially, and politically. James has repeatedly abused her position as attorney general for the state of New York.
It suffices to say that these actions are against Florida and New York law.
James’ lawsuit, according to the complaint, “could virtually destroy [Trump’s] highly lucrative Florida properties.”
James charges the Trump Organisation with inflating asset prices to catch lenders and investors off guard. If her case is successful, it would prevent Trump and his three named children from holding any administrative positions in New York, a clause that some believe might bring down the president’s business empire.
Trump asserts that no banks have been late with payments from his business and that the James lawsuit would not have been brought if he were not “leading in the polls by substantial margins against both Democrats and Republicans”.
After the midterm elections on November 8 and maybe after Tiffany Trump, his fourth adult child, gets married at his Mar-a-Lago estate on November 12, most analysts anticipate Trump to make his third bid for the White House this month.
In October, James urged a New York court to halt the former president’s assets, alleging that Trump was engaging in “fraudulent practises” and worried that he was moving his business activities to evade her lawsuit.
Additionally, James has asked for a court order that would forbid any real estate-related activities and a potential fine of $250m (£224m), measures which would effectively block Trump from the industry in which he made his name.
In an effort to stop accounting moves that might financially benefit the company, the state attorney general is also attempting to stop the Trump Organisation from being able to transfer or discard assets to third parties and to secure the appointment of an independent monitor to review the company’s 2022 financial statements.
Trump requested an injunction against James in his countersuit, ordering her to stop taking any further legal action against him. Additionally, he frequently brought up James’s threats to sue him—a promise she made to voters when running as a Democrat for office in 2018—and said she was a target of a political witch hunt, a term Trump frequently used to describe the numerous inquiries into his business and political dealings.
Trump had already sued the government once, claiming bias. The complaint filed on Wednesday suggested more suits could follow.
The party opposed to the litigation informed the Florida attorneys who crafted it on the former president’s behalf that it was frivolous and would fail, according to people with knowledge of the situation, according to the New York Times, which reported that Trump’s own counsel “hotly opposed” launching the claim. The general attorney for Mr. Trump’s real estate company raised the biggest opposition, claiming that the Floridians might be engaging in unethical behaviour.
“However, the lawsuit was brought.”
Trump oddly referred to the New York lawyer as “Peekaboo” James in a statement on Wednesday night and described her state, which served as his residence before he was elected president, as “one of the most crime-ridden places on earth – with murders, robberies, drug deals and every other form of crime setting records on a daily basis.”
He added: “While James does nothing to protect New York against these violent crimes and criminals, she attacks great and upstanding businesses which have done nothing wrong, like the very successful, job and tax-producing Trump Organization that I have painstakingly built over a long period of years.”