Donald Trump wants a judge to either force New York Attorney General Letitia James to hit pause on any criminal or civil investigations into his businesses or recuse herself from the probes altogether, according to a new court filing.
The former president filed a motion for preliminary injunction Monday in his Albany federal suit against James from December that claims she’s carrying out a “witch hunt” against his family’s real estate company.
Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump and The Trump Organization, asked a judge to either pause James’ probe into his company while his own civil suit plays out — or force James to “recuse herself from involvement in any capacity in the active civil and criminal investigation,” the court papers say.
Habba claims that James has brought a “targeted attack against a political adversary” in an “arbitrary fishing expedition,” the filing alleges.
AG James fired back at Trump in a recent statement, saying “no one is above the law.” Paul Martinka“By filing this preliminary injunction, we will hold Ms. James accountable for her rampant misconduct by asking the court to stay this pretextual investigation,” Habba said in a statement to The Post. “Ms. James will no longer be permitted to use her office to violate our client’s constitutional rights.”
In a statement, James fired back, “The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings. To be clear, neither Donald Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions.
“Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.”
Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, asked the judge to pause AG James’ probe. Habba Madaio & AssociatesIn 2019, James’ office opened up an investigation into the Trump Organization after former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified that Trump exaggerated the value of the companies’ assets to obtain better terms for loans and insurance policies.
Then in August 2020, James filed suit against the company and Eric Trump, alleging they were stonewalling her probe.
Last week, Trump and another two of his children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., were added to James’ lawsuit after they allegedly failed to cooperate with subpoenas. The trio then filed motions to quash the interviews. A judge has not yet ruled on those motions.
