BURSTThe New York attorney general's office said Tuesday it will not drop its multimillion-dollar civil fraud case against President-elect Trump, despite his request.
Deputy Solicitor General Judith Vale wrote in a letter to Trump attorney D. John Sauer that his call for New York Attorney General Letitia James to toss the case presented "no basis" for the office to do so.
"The ordinary burdens of civil litigation do not impede the President’s official duties in a way that violates the U.S. Constitution," Vale wrote.
The deputy attorney general noted that the state's midlevel appeals court already heard Trump's challenge of the judgment and is weighing the matter, suggesting that his official duties would not be impeded by waiting for that outcome or any further appeals in the matter.
Sauer, an appellate attorney who is also Trump's pick for U.S. solicitor general, wrote in a letter to James last month that special counsel Jack Smith dismissed both of his criminal prosecutions against Trump following his White House win, and in New York, a judge is weighing whether to throw out the president-elect’s hush money conviction.
But Vale said since James's case against Trump is a civil case — not a criminal one — the former president's other legal troubles are "irrelevant here."
James sued Trump in 2022 and took him to trial last year. A New York judge found Trump and his business conspired to alter his net worth for tax and insurance benefits, after previously finding them liable for fraud. He ordered the defendants to pay $464 million, plus interest, the bulk of which Trump bears.
Today, the president-elect, Trump Organization and top executives, including his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, owe more than $497 million with interest, which has continued to accrue while they appeal.
After Trump's election victory, James said her office is prepared to take on a second Trump administration. Without mentioning the civil fraud case, she said she intends to “continue to stand tall in the face of injustice, revenge, retribution.”
Sauer cited a need to “cure” partisan divisions following Trump’s win in his letter to the state's top prosecutor to toss the case.