In an effort to prevent the Democrat from placing limitations on his professional and personal life, Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, on Wednesday. Trump accused the New York AG of going on a "crusade" against him.
Trump employs a revocable trust to manage his assets as he awaits a tax fraud lawsuit, and a 41-page lawsuit filed in Florida's Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court seeks an injunction to prevent the attorney general from appointing a watchdog or monitoring agent to investigate the trust.
Donald Trump vs. New York AG Letitia James
According to The Hill, Trump said that "Peekaboo" James is criticizing "wonderful and upstanding businesses which have done nothing wrong" in a statement late on Wednesday. In September, James filed a lawsuit demanding $250 million in financial penalties for suspected tax fraud against Trump, the Trump Organization, and three of his children.
James accused the former president with overstating his net worth by billions of dollars and falsely inflating and deflating his taxes in order to pay less in taxes and have better insurance coverage. James has asked a court to appoint an impartial overseer to examine the defendants' financial practices and disclosures, including for the movement of any assets, while the litigation is still pending.
Trump has persisted in refuting James' claims that his companies overstated their assets to qualify for more enticing loans or understated them to avoid paying more in taxes. James began looking into the Trump Organization in 2019 and filed a lawsuit against it this year in September, as per Newsweek.
The legal team for President Trump claims in the lawsuit filed on Wednesday that James ran for attorney general in 2018 on a "promise to target" the Trump Organization before she could have had "personal knowledge of any 'Trump-related real estate transactions' at the time... as she had not yet been elected attorney general and possessed no information or insight into President Trump's business other than what she had presumably seen in the media."
Donald Trump's Personal Trust
Additionally, Trump's team claims that James' probe has breached Trump's right to privacy and asserts that the Florida Constitution's guarantee of that right prevents the revelation of a private person's financial information in the absence of any pertinent or compelling circumstances.
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump stated, "This would not be happening if I were not elected President of the United States, and now ahead in the polls by huge majorities against both Democrats and Republicans." Additionally, according to Trump's lawsuit, James conducted an inquiry in New York "all while violent crime skyrockets and the residents lack basic safety in many places."
On his Truth Social account, the former president reiterated his accusations, tweeting that New York "is one of the most crime-ridden areas on planet." In an effort to "stop Donald Trump and the Trump Organization from continuing to engage in the significant fraudulent and illegal business activity," James' office filed an injunction on October 13.
If approved, the injunction would prevent the Trump Organization from transferring any assets to another entity without first receiving court approval. James' injunction hearing was initially scheduled on October 31 by a New York state judge.
Per Daily Mail, the Trump Organization allegedly ran a 15-year scheme to aid its top executives in avoiding paying their fair share of taxes, according to prosecutors in the trial. Trump's business may be hit with fines and taxes totaling more than $1 million if found guilty.
The Manhattan district attorney's three-year investigation of the embattled president, who, together with his Trump Organization, has been on trial since the beginning of the week, has yielded just one criminal trial: the tax fraud case.
The case is one of three that Trump or the corporation is involved in that are now pending in New York courts. Just over a month ago, James filed her case, saying that the Trumps had engaged in extensive fraud, which was accomplished by overvaluing assets like buildings and golf courses.
Trump, of course, has refuted the allegations, and much of what his legal team has testified to in court is reiterated in his most recent lawsuit. The 76-year-old is involved in a number of court challenges as he considers running for president again after losing to Joe Biden in 2020. One of those battles is the current case. He has not yet faced any criminal charges.
More than 500 corporate organizations make up The Trump Organization. Two of those organizations were charged by the district attorney's office with providing rent-free homes and leased luxury cars to high-ranking employees who failed to pay taxes on the benefits.
@YouTube
