Former President Donald Trump Sued by New York Attorney General

In a press conference on Wednesday, New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced that she had filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization.

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The lawsuit filed states that following a three year investigation that involved more than 65 witnesses and millions of pages of documents, Attorney General James determined that former President Trump and his organization engaged in numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation in the preparation of his annual statements of financial condition covering at least 2011 to 2021.

"For too long, powerful, wealthy people in this country have operated as if the rules do not apply to them," said Attorney General James. "Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples of this misconduct. With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organization, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system."

The 220 page suit seeks to bar former President Trump from entering into any New York state commercial real estate acquisitions for five years, from applying for loans from any financial institution chartered or registered with the New York Department of Financial Services for five years, and either he or Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump from serving as an officer or director in any New York corporation or similar business entity. The suit also calls for $250,000,000 in damages.

The suit also alleges that the Trump Organization knowingly and improperly used lower capitalization rates to inflate the value of Trump Tower to over $800 million. In a series of tweets following the press conference, Attorney General James claimed that former President Trump used objectively false numbers to calculate property values. For instance, James claimed Trump said his apartment in Trump Tower was 30,000 square feet when in reality it was just 10,996 square feet.

Alina Habba, Attorney for former President Trump, responded "Today's filing is neither focused on the facts nor the law, rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General's political agenda. It is abundantly clear that the Attorney General's Office has exceeded its statutory authority by prying into transactions where absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place."