Trump calls New York criminal investigation 'corrupt' and 'in desperate search of a crime'
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump tore into New York Attorney General Letitia James and other prosecutors Wednesday after James' office said it is pursuing a criminal investigation of the Trump Organization.
Trump attacked James, who announced the criminal inquiry Tuesday, and other officials in a long statement that said: "There is nothing more corrupt than an investigation that is in desperate search of a crime.
"But, make no mistake, that is exactly what is happening here," he said. "The Attorney General of New York literally campaigned on prosecuting Donald Trump even before she knew anything about me."
Trump said the prosecutors' investigations are simply "a continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of the United States."
"Working in conjunction with Washington, these Democrats want to silence and cancel millions of voters because they don't want 'Trump' to run again," he said.
Trump said lawmakers failed to stop him in Washington, so they turned the issues over to New York investigators "to do their dirty work."
The statement, however, did not address the subject of the investigation, which stems from allegations made by his former attorney Michael Cohen, who claimed when he testified to Congress in 2019 that Trump had deliberately inflated the worth of his assets in official documents.
Trump referred to Cohen without using his name, saying he was "a lying, discredited low life" who was sentenced to three years in prison, even though he was released to home confinement in July.
Trump attacked James, who announced the criminal inquiry Tuesday, and other officials in a long statement that said: "There is nothing more corrupt than an investigation that is in desperate search of a crime.
"But, make no mistake, that is exactly what is happening here," he said. "The Attorney General of New York literally campaigned on prosecuting Donald Trump even before she knew anything about me."
An official familiar with the investigation said it had developed some evidence suggesting a possible crime, so two lawyers from the office will work on the matter with the Manhattan district attorney's office.
James has been at the forefront of legal action against Trump's family business.
Her yearslong probe into Trump's charitable foundation led to its dissolution in 2018. More recently, her investigation of whether Trump's business had inflated the value of its assets for the purposes of tax breaks and loans came to a head in October when Eric Trump, the president's son and an executive at his business, sat for a pre-election deposition.
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Prosecutors in Georgia’s biggest county have opened a criminal investigation into Trump’s attempts to influence the state’s 2020 election results.
The investigation is being led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and focuses in part on a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, on January 2.
Trump asked Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump’s election loss, based on false voter-fraud claims, according to an audio recording obtained by the Washington Post.
Legal experts say Trump’s phone calls may have violated at least three Georgia criminal election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, and intentional interference with performance of election duties.
Trump, however, could argue he was engaging in free speech and did not intend to influence the election.
E. JEAN CARROLL'S DEFAMATION CASE
E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after the president denied her allegation that he raped her in the 1990s in a New York department store and accused her of lying to drum up sales for a book.
In August, a state judge allowed the case to go forward, meaning Carroll’s lawyers could seek a DNA sample from Trump to match against a dress she said she wore at the store.
A federal judge in Manhattan rejected a bid by the U.S. Justice Department to substitute the federal government for Trump as defendant in the case. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said that Trump did not make his statements about Carroll in the scope of his employment as president.
Trump has appealed Kaplan's decision to the U.S. 2nd Circuit of Appeals, which has not yet ruled.
