A federal judge on Friday dismissed former President Donald Trump's lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James, in which he accused her of abusing her authority by investigating the financial affairs of the Trump Organization.
Filed in December, the suit was brought by Trump and the Trump Organization and alleged that James' multi-year civil investigation was politically motivated and lacked a justifiable legal basis, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump said that James, a Democrat, showed "severe animus" toward him before she became attorney general and stated publicly, both during and after her campaign, that she planned to investigate his family.
Trump had asked a judge to order James to recuse herself from her civil investigation and separate criminal probe.
In a decision on Friday, U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes found that Trump and the Trump Organization did not prove that James began her investigation in bad faith or as a way to retaliate against Trump for his political beliefs.
"The fact that Defendant's public statements reflect personal and/or political animus toward Plaintiffs is not, in and of itself, sufficient," Judge Sannes wrote.
The judge, an Obama appointee, remarked that, in separate litigation, a state-court judge has rejected Trump's challenges to subpoenas James issued multiple times.
Axios reports that the dismissal comes one day after a four-judge panel ruled that Trump and his children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., must comply with subpoenas issued by James and testify under oath as part of the state's investigation.
James' office previously said it opened the investigation into Trump's affairs following congressional testimony in 2019 from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who said the former president inflated and deflated his asset values for financial gain.
"No one in this country can pick and choose how the law applies to them, and Donald Trump is no exception," James reportedly said.
Trump denies the attorney general's allegations.
Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, told the Journal she plans to appeal the ruling.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.