Trump drops second lawsuit against Latest York attorney general

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday voluntarily dropped a second federal civil motion against Latest York’s attorney general that had attempted to thwart her own $250 million fraud lawsuit against his Manhattan-based real estate company.

Trump’s latest legal capitulation got here lower than every week after being slapped by a federal judge in Florida with nearly $1 million in sanctions for filing what that judge called a frivolous lawsuit against Hillary Clinton.

Lawyers for each Trump and Latest York Attorney General Letitia James in a filing Tuesday said they jointly agreed to dismiss an appeal in Manhattan federal appeals court.

Trump, who’s in search of the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, had filed that appeal after a federal judge within the Northern District of Latest York tossed out his suit there against James.

In an announcement, the attorney general said, “I’m pleased that Donald Trump has withdrawn each of his pending actions against my office.”

“As now we have shown all along, now we have a legitimate legal case against him and his organization, and we can’t be bullied or dissuaded from pursuing it,” James said.

Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, said in an announcement, “This appeal was voluntarily withdrawn for strategic purposes.”

James in September filed her $250 million suit against Trump, the Trump Organization, and three of his adult children in reference to using allegedly fraudulent financial statements related to the corporate.

James’ suit was filed in Latest York state court after her investigators for several years reviewed claims that the Trump Organization had improperly manipulated the stated valuations of varied real estate assets for financial gain.

Trump in December 2021 sued James in federal court for the Northern District of Latest York, in search of to dam her from continuing her investigation. That suit alleged that the attorney general had violated Trump’s constitutional rights, and asked a judge to issue an injunction that may end or hobble the probe.

James’ “mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a personal citizen who she views as a political opponent,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in that suit.

That case was dismissed by a judge at James’ request in May.

Two months after James sued him in Manhattan, Trump sued James in a Florida state court in November, claiming that her probe was a part of a “war of intimidation and harassment.”

His second lawsuit suit, which James soon had transferred to federal court in Florida, sought to dam her from obtaining records from a revocable trust he created in Florida, which has ownership of the Trump Organization.

As Trump was waging legal war against James, he also was targeting in a Florida federal court one other political enemy: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whom he defeated within the 2016 presidential election.

Trump last 12 months sued Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, former FBI officials and greater than two dozen other defendants in that case, claiming they’d tried to rig the 2016 election by pushing a “false narrative” that he had colluded with Russia.

Judge John Middlebrooks dismissed that lawsuit in September, calling it a “political manifesto outlining his grievances against those who have opposed him.”

Last Thursday, Middlebrooks ordered Trump and his lawyer, Habba, to pay $937,989 in sanctions for filing what the judge was a “completely frivolous, each factually and legally,” suit.

Middlebrooks’ order noted how Trump had engaged in “a pattern of abuse of the court,” and repeatedly used courts “to hunt revenge on political adversaries.”

The subsequent morning, Trump voluntarily dropped his lawsuit in Florida federal court against James, which Middlebrooks also had been handling.

Days later, Trump dropped his appeal of the dismissal of the suit against James in Latest York federal court for the Northern District.