Former President Donald Trump has launched a counteroffensive against New York Attorney General Letitia James with a lawsuit accusing her of harassment.
In September, James, a progressive Democrat, filed a $250 million lawsuit against Trump and some members of his family, claiming fraud.
"The lawsuit alleges that Donald Trump, with the help of his children Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, and senior executives at the Trump Organization, falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company, to satisfy continuing loan covenants, to induce insurers to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and at lower premiums, and to gain tax benefits, among other things," the attorney general's office said in a Sept. 21 news release announcing her lawsuit.
Trump has now replied with a lawsuit of his own filed Wednesday in Palm Beach County, Florida.
He explained his actions in a series of posts on his Truth Social platform.
"Today, I filed a lawsuit in Florida State Circuit Court against the corrupt Attorney General of New York State, Letitia ‘Peekaboo' James," the former president wrote.
"New York State is one of the most crime-ridden places on earth with murders, robberies, drug deals, and every other form of crime setting records on a weekly basis," he said. "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."
"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."
He wrote that James was playing politics with her lawsuit against him.
"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. We have to stand up for our Country, fight against illegal persecution, and Make America Great Again!," he wrote.
The lawsuit comes out swinging against James.
"Extraordinary wrongdoing requires extraordinary relief," it says. "As set forth below, James has repeatedly abused her position as Attorney General for the State of New York to pursue a relentless, pernicious, public, and unapologetic crusade against President Trump, a resident of Palm Beach County, Florida, with the stated goal of destroying him personally, financially, and politically."
The lawsuit calls James "an individual guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against President Trump" who has launched a "war of intimidation and harassment on President Trump, his family, his business interests, and his associates."
It says the attorney general "was driven by deep animosity for [Trump] personally and an obsessive denial that he had the right to hold public office."
The lawsuit frames James as using ant-Trump comments to further her election, saying she "began making threats against President Trump before she was even elected, at a time when she possessed no actual information or insight into President Trump's business. She campaigned for her position on the promise to weaponize her resources against President Trump and ‘anyone in [his] orbit.'"
"During her unsuccessful bid for governor of New York, she boasted about suing him ‘76 times.' Now up for reelection as Attorney General, she is campaigning once again on the promise that if reelected she will continue her vitriolic and obsessive pursuit of President Trump," the lawsuit says. "None of these actions are proper actions for a state Attorney General."
It says "what began as a cartoonish, thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign President Trump for personal political gain has morphed into a plot to obtain control of a global private enterprise ultimately owned by a Florida revocable trust in which President Trump is the settlor," referring to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which the lawsuit demands be protected from James.
Trump Complaint by The Western Journal
As noted by Axios, Trump lost his last lawsuit against James, which was filed in federal court in New York state.
A representative of James' office said in a statement to Axios that the office was not worried about Trump's suit.
"Multiple judges have dismissed Donald Trump's baseless attempts to evade justice, and no number of lawsuits will deter us from pursuing this fraud," the statement said.
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via westernjournal