The New York legal professional normal’s workplace mentioned Tuesday it won’t drop its multimillion-dollar civil fraud case in opposition to President-elect Trump, regardless of his request.
Deputy Solicitor Common Judith Vale wrote in a letter to Trump legal professional D. John Sauer that his name for New York Lawyer Common Letitia James (D) to toss the case introduced “no basis” for the workplace to take action.
“The ordinary burdens of civil litigation do not impede the President’s official duties in a way that violates the U.S. Constitution,” Vale wrote.
The deputy legal professional normal famous the state’s midlevel appeals court docket already heard Trump’s problem of the judgment and is weighing the matter, suggesting his official duties wouldn’t be impeded by ready for that end result or any additional appeals within the matter.
Sauer, an appellate legal professional who can be Trump’s decide for U.S. solicitor normal, wrote in a letter to James final month that particular counsel Jack Smith dismissed each of his legal prosecutions in opposition to Trump following his White Home win, and in New York, a choose is weighing whether or not to throw out the president-elect’s hush cash conviction.
However Vale mentioned since James’s case in opposition to Trump is a civil case — not a legal one — the president-elect’s different authorized troubles are “irrelevant here.”
James sued Trump in 2022 and took him to trial final yr. A New York choose discovered Trump and his enterprise conspired to change his web price for tax and insurance coverage advantages, after beforehand discovering them answerable for fraud. He ordered the defendants to pay $464 million, plus curiosity, the majority of which Trump bears.
At present, the president-elect, Trump Group and prime executives — together with his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — owe greater than $497 million with curiosity, which has continued to accrue whereas they attraction.
After Trump’s election victory, James mentioned her workplace is ready to tackle a second Trump administration. With out mentioning the civil fraud case, she mentioned she intends to “continue to stand tall in the face of injustice, revenge, retribution.”
Sauer cited a have to “cure” partisan divisions following Trump’s win in his letter to the state’s prime prosecutor to toss the case.
