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Former President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James, accusing her of setting a "policy of intimidation and harassment" in her investigation into his business practices.
The lawsuit, filed in Florida State Court, alleges that James' investigation against the Trump Organization is politically motivated and not backed by evidence.
"After more than three years of formal investigation, targeted public attacks, and millions of dollars and thousands of hours spent, it is clear that neither President Trump nor any of President Trump's companies laundered money in any way shape or form," read the suit signed by Trump's lawyers on Wednesday.
"[The] defendant fabricated the allegations out of thin air, clearly indicating that even after assuming her office and initiating investigations her desire to pursue President Trump was driven by bias, political animus, and the most severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome –not facts!" continued the suit.
The term "Trump Derangement Syndrome" has been used by the former president in the past to refer to those who have "been driven insane due to their dislike of Trump," reported CNN. Its roots can be traced back to a term used by columnist Charles Krauthammer in 2003, who wrote about "Bush Derangement Syndrome" in reference to then-President George W. Bush.
Trump has continued to deny James' allegations that his businesses have lied about their assets—either inflating them to earn more favorable loans or minimizing them to avoid higher taxes. James first started her probe into the Trump Organization in 2019 and officially sued the company in September of this year.
In the suit filed Wednesday, Trump's legal team argues that James campaigned for attorney general in 2018 on a "promise to target" the Trump Organization even 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."
Trump's team also alleges that James' investigation has violated Trump's right to privacy, and argues that the "right to privacy guaranteed by the Florida Constitution protects the disclosure of financial information of private persons if there is no relevant or compelling reason to require disclosure."
"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," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.
Trump's lawsuit also alleges that James has pursued a politically-motivated investigation "all while violent crime skyrockets and the residents lack basic safety in many places" in New York. The former president also doubled-down on his claims on his Truth Social account, writing that New York "is one of the most crime-ridden places on earth."
"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," Trump's post continued.
On October 13, James' office filed an injunction to "stop Donald Trump and the Trump Organization from continuing to engage in the significant fraudulent and illegal business activity," which, if granted, would freeze the Trump Organization from transferring any assets to another entity without court approval.
CNN reports that a New York state judge had originally set a hearing for James' injunction to occur October 31.
Newsweek hasreached out to the office of James for comment.
About the writer
Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more