Former President Donald Trump has been gone from the White House for almost a year, yet he continues to face a variety of investigations — from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s select committee on the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Another is New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ ongoing civil probe of Trump’s finances. In an article published by Rolling Stone on January 11, journalist Peter Wade reports that Trump and his lawyers are “pulling out all the stops to prevent” James’ investigation from moving ahead.
It was obvious how much James is getting to Team Trump when, on Monday, January 10, Trump’s lawyers filed a lawsuit against James’ investigation, asking for a preliminary injunction.
Alina Habba, a Trump attorney, angrily railed against James during a January 10 appearance on right-wing Newsmax TV—where she declared, “She is a sick person who really truly has taken her oath of office and just weaponized it. We basically today said: Look, we get the court system, we get that it’s going to take a couple of years to get through a normal case. But this is so bad, we have to stop right now and be fair. The fishing expedition has to stop.”
Monday night, January 10 also found Eric Trump appearing on Fox News, Newsmax TV’s much larger cable news competitor, and railing against James as well. The ex-president’s son told Fox News’ Sean Hannity, “She ran on the campaign promise of suing my father because she didn’t believe in his political party, because she didn’t like us, because the people of Washington, D.C. told her to do that. It violates the Constitution. It’s unethical, it’s wrong.”
James’ office suspects that the Trump Organization inflated the value of its assets when seeking bank loans only to turn around and understate their value on tax returns.
“While James is running the civil investigation into Trump,” Wade explains, “she is also involved with a criminal investigation into Trump, his companies, and their leadership led by the Manhattan district attorney. Over the summer, that office charged the Trump Organization and Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg with 15 counts of financial crimes, including federal tax fraud, falsifying business records, grand larceny, and scheme conspiracy. Both have pleaded not guilty.”
Wade adds, “As part of the civil investigation, James has subpoenaed Trump’s eldest children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, as well as the former president, requesting depositions. Both of Trump’s children claimed they cannot testify in the civil case because James could learn information relevant to the criminal investigation during their testimony without guaranteeing the same protections they’d receive if they testified in a criminal case.”
But James is not backing down from her investigation.
In an official statement, the New York State attorney general declared, “These delay tactics will not stop us from following the facts or the law, which is why we will be asking the court to compel Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr. and Ivanka Trump to testify with our office under oath. Our investigation will continue undeterred.”