Attorneys representing former President Donald Trump are trotting out a novel defense against New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud lawsuit against the Trump Organization.
As Business Insider reports, Trump's lawyers claimed this week that the Trump Organization is not an actual business in the traditional sense but is rather a "branding shorthand" that is immune to civil litigation.
"To the extent a response is required, Defendant specifically denies the definitions of 'Trump Organization' and 'Defendants,'" the attorneys argued in their filing. "While the shorthand 'Trump Organization' is utilized by Defendants for branding and business purposes, no entity as such exists for legal purposes."
According to Business Insider, the attorneys make reference to this argument multiple times throughout their 300-page filing, which suggests that convincing a judge that there is no such thing as the Trump Organization is a central tenet of their current defense strategy.
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The report goes on to note that this strategy, while certainly creative, might run into some problems given a close examination of the language used in James' lawsuit.
"New York's lawsuit does not specifically sue anything called 'Trump Organization,'" Business Insider writes. "New York's lawsuit names Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, former company CFO Allen Weisselberg and its former payroll executive Jeffrey McConney. It also names 10 entities under the Trump Organization umbrella — including 'The Trump Organization, Inc.,' a registered corporation in New York since 1981."
