New York — NEW YORK (AP) — On the day she was elected New York’s attorney general, Letitia James blasted President Donald Trump as a “con man” and “carnival barker” and vowed to scrutinize his public policies and personal business dealings. While James filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump’s brand persona was built in part on lies, he fired back at her, calling her “grossly incompetent” and an “evil person.”
James, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, have been longtime legal and political rivals, tangled in dozens of lawsuits over the years.
On Thursday, Trump’s Justice Department James was indicted on mortgage fraud charges after vowing revenge on his enemies, escalating a feud that has been ongoing since her campaign for attorney general in 2018. She has denied any wrongdoing.
Here’s a look at some of the legal disputes between James and Trump:
James sued Trump after his first term, alleging in September 2022 that he inflated his net worth by billions of dollars by misleading banks and insurance companies about the value of assets such as Trump Tower and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She called it “The Art of the Steal,” a change from the title of Trump’s memoir. After the trial, a judge Trump last year ordered the payment Huge financial penalty. Court of Appeal later He delivered the punishmentwhich increased to more than $500 million with interest, but confirmed the lower court’s finding that Trump committed fraud. James is now asking the state’s highest court to reimpose the penalty, while Trump is seeking to lift other non-financial penalties.
Trump sparred with James during the filing of her civil fraud lawsuit in April 2023. Answer questions for seven hours In her Manhattan office, he told her that “the whole case is crazy” and accused her staff of trying to frame him like the fictional TV lawyer Perry Mason did to witnesses. A few months later, they met face to face again when Trump testified at the trial. Trump looked away from James and frowned as he passed her on his way to court. On the witness stand, he accused her of pursuing him to further her career. “She is a political hack, and it is a shame that a case like this continues,” he testified, adding that James “should be ashamed of herself.”
Working with a coalition of Democratic attorneys general, James has sued Trump and his administration multiple times since returning to the White House in January, challenging everything from cuts to counterterrorism and public safety funding to plans to deploy National Guard troops in Oregon. These efforts began the day after Trump took office with a lawsuit challenging his efforts to revoke birthright citizenship. Other lawsuits have challenged the operation of Elon Musk’s so-called Government Efficiency Administration, the mass firings of federal workers, and the revocation of temporary protected status for Venezuelans.
During his first term, James sued the administration at least 66 times over a two-year period, challenging policies on the environment, immigration policy, education, health care and other issues. She fought his plans to include a question about immigration status in the census, winning in the U.S. Supreme Court, and sued the U.S. Postal Service over slowdowns ahead of the 2020 election. Other major victories during the first term included restoring what is known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which allows people who came to the country illegally as children to stay, and a ruling that prevents immigration authorities from detaining people in Courts.
James cooperated with then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to bring tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, its chief financial officer. It was the company Convicted in 2022 By helping its executives evade taxes on expensive perks like apartments and luxury cars in Manhattan. James hired two attorneys to work with Vance’s office after evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing was uncovered. James was not involved when Trump was prosecuted last year by Alvin Bragg, the current district attorney, and found guilty of falsifying business records.
In 2019, James terminated an agreement brokered by her predecessor to dissolve his charity and force him to pay up. 2 million dollars to various non-profit organizations as a fine for misspending funds to advance his political and business interests. The remaining funds of $1.7 million were also donated to the Trump Foundation. Trump admitted in a lawsuit that he allowed campaign staff to coordinate with the charity to raise funds for veterans before the 2016 Iowa caucuses. He also admitted to arranging to pay $10,000 for a 6-foot (1.8-meter) portrait of himself and spending $11,525 of the foundation’s money on sports memorabilia and champagne at a charity event.
Trump filed a lawsuit against James in 2021 in an attempt to prevent her from investigating him and his companies. After a federal judge in New York quickly dismissed the case, Trump filed a lawsuit against her again in Florida. A judge there declined to block the investigation, writing in December 2022: “This lawsuit bears every mark of being malicious and frivolous.” Trump abandoned recovery efforts His first lawsuit is against James after a Florida judge dismissed the lawsuit he filed against his 2016 presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. In dismissing that case, US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ordered Trump and one of his lawyers – Alina Haba, currently the acting US attorney in New Jersey – to pay nearly $1 million for filing frivolous lawsuits for political purposes, which the judge said amounted to “a pattern of abuse of the courts.”
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Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York.