‘Grievances masquerading as legal claims’: Judge scolds Trump on suit against NY attorney general
Ryan King
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A federal judge spurned a challenge from former President Donald Trump to undercut New York Attorney General Letitia James’s sweeping $250 million civil lawsuit against his business empire Wednesday.
Warning that Trump’s legal team could get hit with sanctions for their tactics, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks blasted the challenge as “vexatious and frivolous” litigation.
‘ART OF THE STEAL’: NEW YORK AG LETITIA JAMES UNVEILS FRAUD LAWSUIT AGAINST TRUMP AND CHILDREN
“These were political grievances masquerading as legal claims,” Middlebrooks wrote in an eight-page order. “This cannot be attributed to incompetent lawyering. It was a deliberate use of the judicial system to pursue a political agenda.”
Last month, Trump’s team sued James seeking an emergency injunction to block her from obtaining access to records from the trust that has ownership over the Trump Organization. The petition was filed in a Florida state court with the apparent aim of getting reviewed by a favorable judge, but James’s office had the challenge transferred away. Middlebrooks was appointed to the court by former President Bill Clinton.
Middlebrooks argued that the notion that Trump would be irreparably harmed by James getting the trust records was “quintessentially speculative,” and he shrugged off the risk of James’s office leaking those documents to the public.
James filed the more than 280-page lawsuit against Trump, the Trump Organization, and three of his children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump — back in September. She derided him for engaging in the “art of the steal,” alleging the defendants fraudulently manipulated financial valuations for tax and business benefit. James is seeking a minimum of $250 million and numerous business sanctions.
“This litigation has all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous,” Middlebrooks further contended.
Donald Trump has vehemently denied wrongdoing and seethed at the suit, belittling it as a “witch hunt.” Last month, James won approval from a New York judge for a monitor to oversee the former president’s business empire while litigation pans out in court.
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Last month, Middlebrooks slapped multiple Trump lawyers with a $66,000 fee for a Trump lawsuit they helped pursue against Hillary Clinton and a slew of Democrats alleging they peddled false Russia collusion allegations. The judge similarly ripped that suit as frivolous. They are appealing those sanctions.