In a statement, James said his office would “continue this investigation without hindrance” and that Trump had made efforts to select “how the law applies” to him.
“The courts have repeatedly made it clear that Donald J. Trump’s unfounded legal challenges cannot stop our legal investigation into his and the Trump organization’s financial dealings,” James said in a statement.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Hubba said the decision would be appealed and that the judge had erred in refusing to override federal law standards known as “junior deviations” and would avoid it if it went to court in a state court. Habba argued in court that James’ efforts were unjustified and that a federal judge should have intervened to prevent it.
“We have no doubt that we will appeal this decision,” Habba said in a statement. “I can not imagine a situation where Ms. James’ misconduct and harassment investigation does not meet with a bad faith exception to the juvenile referendum theory.”
Arthur Engoron, a state court judge who oversaw several controversies between the James group and Trump, has already refused to stop the trial. Engoron provided James’ past demands to implement saponies that Trump and other parties initially disagreed with.
Engoron recently Insulted Trump Ordered to pay James in February for failing to change records. The contempt order was lifted after he met with a set of conditions related to documenting the search for records, which he said were not yet available despite further requests from Attorney General Trump’s side.
In court documents previously filed by Trump’s lawyers, James’ statements during the election campaign that if he was elected, he would go after Trump and his company, disqualify him from overseeing an impartial investigation, and that his investigation was politically motivated.
Trump said the investigation was a violation of his constitutional rights.
Trump’s lawyers argued in his civil complaint that “his motive is political animosity and persecution, intimidation and retaliation against a private citizen whom he considers a political adversary.”
When concluding the lawsuit with the Manhattan District Attorney regarding his tax accounts and related records, Chance concluded that Trump could have filed his claims in federal court several years ago. After reaching the Supreme Court, Trump’s accounting agency provided documents to criminal investigators.
The district attorney is overseeing a parallel criminal investigation into whether Trump illegally submitted false estimates of assets in order to obtain better debt rates and reduce his tax liability. James’ office, in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office, is providing additional evidence.
Although Trump has not been indicted, District Attorney Alvin Brock (D) said the trial is ongoing, even after two senior lawyers leading the trial withdrew earlier this year in protest. Alan Weiselberg, Trump’s longtime chief financial officer, and the Trump organization were charged last year with a 15 – year tax evasion plan under Brock’s pioneer.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to two counts. Weisselberg and company are innocent and awaiting trial in the New York Supreme Court.
Friday’s verdict dismissing the case also said that interfering in James’ case would be an improper violation of the authority of the elected official. James, the state’s top attorney, has branded the case one of the former president’s many of his belated tactics.
The dismissal comes a day after the Manhattan Court of Appeals ordered the former president and his two children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., to appear before James’ trial.
