NEW YORK (AP) — On the day she was elected New York attorney general, Letitia James called President Donald Trump a “fraud” and a “carnival barker” and vowed to closely scrutinize his public policies and personal business dealings. When James filed a lawsuit claiming that Trump’s business persona was built in part on lies, he returned fire, calling her “extremely incompetent” and “an evil person.”
James, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, have long been legal and political opponents and have become embroiled in dozens of lawsuits over the years.
On Thursday, Trump’s Justice Department filed mortgage fraud charges against James after he vowed revenge on his enemies, escalating a feud that has been going on since she ran for attorney general in 2018. She has denied wrongdoing.
Here’s a look at some of the legal battles between James and Trump:
A lawsuit accusing Trump of lying about his wealth
James sued Trump after his first term, claiming in September 2022 that he inflated his net worth by billions of dollars by misleading banks and insurers about the value of assets such as Trump Tower and the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She called it “The Art of Stealing,” a twist on the title of Trump’s memoir. After a trial last year, a judge ordered Trump to pay a massive fine. An appeals court later rejected the penalty, which grew to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court’s finding that Trump committed fraud. James is now asking the state’s highest court to reinstate the penalty, while Trump is seeking to repeal other non-monetary penalties.
In person during a deposition, fireworks in the courtroom
Trump clashed with James in April 2023 during a deposition on their civil fraud lawsuit. He answered questions for seven hours in her Manhattan office, telling her that “the whole case is crazy” and accusing her staff of trying to trip him up, as fictional TV lawyer Perry Mason had done to witnesses. They faced each other again a few months later when Trump testified in court. Trump looked away from James and frowned as he passed her on his way into court. On the witness stand, he accused her of pursuing him to further her career. “She’s a political hack and it’s a disgrace that a case like this is going on,” he testified, adding that James “should be ashamed of himself.”
A leading role in the fight against the policies of the Trump administration
Working with a coalition of Democratic attorneys general, James has sued Trump and his administration multiple times since returning to the White House in January, demanding everything from cuts to counterterrorism and public safety funding to plans to deploy National Guard troops in Oregon. That effort began the day after Trump took office with a lawsuit challenging his efforts to repeal birthright citizenship. Other lawsuits involved the work of Elon Musk’s so-called Ministry of Government Efficiency, mass layoffs of federal workers and the revocation of fleeting protected status for Venezuelans.
Dozens of lawsuits in Trump’s first term
During his first term, James sued the government at least 66 times in two years, challenging policies on the environment, immigration, education, health care and other issues. She fought against his plans to add an immigration status question to the census, won in the U.S. Supreme Court and sued the U.S. Postal Service for slowing it before the 2020 election. Other major successes during the first term included reinstating the so-called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which bars people who entered the country unlawfully as children and a decision that banned immigration authorities from arresting people in court.
Helping build a criminal case against Trump’s company
James teamed with then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to bring tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, its chief financial officer. The company was convicted in 2022 of helping its executives avoid taxes on extravagant perks such as apartments and luxury cars in Manhattan. James hired two lawyers to work with Vance’s office after uncovering evidence of potential criminal wrongdoing. James was not involved when Trump was indicted and convicted of falsifying business records last year by current district attorney Alvin Bragg.
Trump’s charity closed due to misspending
In 2019, James entered into an agreement negotiated by her predecessor that dissolved his charitable foundation and forced him to pay $2 million to various nonprofit organizations as punishment for misspending funds to advance his political and business interests. The remaining $1.7 million in Trump Foundation funding was also given away. Trump admitted in a court filing that he allowed campaign staffers to coordinate with the charity for a veterans fundraiser ahead of the 2016 Iowa caucuses. He also admitted arranging to pay $10,000 for a 6-foot-tall portrait of him and spending $11,525 in foundation funds on sports memorabilia and champagne at a charity gala.
Trump defends himself, but judges reject his lawsuits
Trump sued James in 2021 to stop her from investigating him and his businesses. After a federal judge in New York quickly dismissed the case, Trump sued her again in Florida. A judge there refused to block the investigation, writing in December 2022: “This litigation shows all the tell-tale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous.” Trump abandoned efforts to reopen his first lawsuit against James after the Florida judge dismissed a lawsuit he filed against his 2016 presidential rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. When U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks dismissed that case, he ordered Trump and one of his lawyers — Alina Habba, currently acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey — to pay nearly $1 million for filing frivolous lawsuits for political purposes, which the judge said amounted to a “pattern of abuse of the courts.”
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Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York.
