Trump Sues New York AG in Florida Seeking to Protect Assets

Joe Schneider and Robert Burnson
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Former President Donald Trump sued New York Attorney General Letitia James in Florida seeking to stop her attempt to impose controls on many of his assets and obtain information about his finances.

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Trump filed suit in Palm Beach Circuit Court Wednesday evening. The complaint came just before a Thursday hearing in New York over James’s motion for an order blocking Trump from moving assets and appointing an independent monitor to oversee his family real estate business.

In a letter Thursday to New York state Judge Arthur Engoron, a lawyer with James’s office said the Florida suit greatly strengthened her argument for an order putting controls on his company.

“Mr. Trump admits he is seeking to put assets beyond this Court’s reach,” state lawyer Kevin Wallace said, noting that the former president asserted that New York “has no jurisdiction over the assets of a Florida trust.”

James sued Trump and his three children in New York in September, claiming they inflated the value of his real estate company’s assets. She’s seeking $250 million in disgorgement and to prevent his companies from doing business in New York. Last month she asked Engoron to appoint a monitor to oversee the company before the civil case goes to trial.

Trump’s Florida suit, which reads much like his posts on Truth Social -- his Twitter-like social media site -- accuses James of a “war of intimidation and harassment.”

Read More: Trump Sued by New York Over ‘Fraudulent’ Asset Valuations

“What began as a cartoonish, thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign President Trump for personal political gain has morphed into a plot to obtain control of a global private enterprise ultimately owned by a Florida revocable trust in which President Trump is the settlor,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the complaint.

Trump claims James is violating his privacy by seeking details of his revocable trust. He asked for a preliminary and permanent injunction preventing James from getting a copy of the trust, or exercising any authority over it.

The Florida case is Trump v. James, 15th Judicial Circuit, Florida (Palm Beach). The New York case is New York v. Trump, 452564/2022, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York (Manhattan).

--With assistance from Chris Dolmetsch.

(Updates with confirmation of filing.)

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