There was an intervention among Donald Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday night, according to New York Times “Trump whisperer” Maggie Haberman and her co-authors.
The intervention wasn’t one in which loving family members gathered around to read their letters asking their loved one to get some help. Instead, it was a legal team desperately trying to tell the former president that his “primal scream of a lawsuit” against New York Attorney General Letitia James was ill-advised.
It’s been a difficult legal week for Donald Trump where he was forced to settle a long-fought case brought by protesters because the Bronx court couldn’t find any jurors who didn’t hate the former president. The previous week was worse, however, with his fraud case going to trial, the Justice Department bearing down and talking of an indictment after Election Day.
Trump’s lawyers tried to tell the Florida lawyers that filing a frivolous lawsuit would not only fail but it could result in legal malpractice. Florida has laws against so-called “frivolous lawsuits,” which could mean that if Trump files one he could be subjected to pay for the other side’s attorney’s fees.
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“Nonetheless, the suit was filed,” the Times summed up.
Trump announced his new lawsuit on his personal social media site, saying that “while James does nothing to protect New York against these violent crimes and criminals, she attacks great and upstanding businesses.”
A state’s attorney general doesn’t deal with violent crime, their cases generally focus on civil cases, environmental laws, formal opinions of state agencies, representing the state in court, and other such things. It’s the second time in 24 hours that Trump has revealed he doesn’t understand how the government works. Earlier in an interview Thursday he called for Mitch McConnell to be impeached. Senators can’t be impeached.
Trump has failed in his ongoing attempts to stop James’ investigations into the Trump Organization, including a complaint he filed in federal court against James, but it was dismissed.
“The new 41-page lawsuit against Ms. James was filed in Palm Beach by Timothy W. Weber, Jeremy D. Bailie and R. Quincy Bird, members of a St. Petersburg-based law firm — and was championed by Boris Epshteyn, an in-house counsel for the former president who has become one of his most trusted advisers,” said the Times. “While lawsuits filed on behalf of Mr. Trump often bear signs of the former president’s input, the Florida case at times sounds remarkably like him, replete with boasts and expressions of raw grievance.”
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“As a private company, nobody knew very much about the great business that then-businessman Donald Trump had built but now it is being revealed by James and much to her chagrin,” the lawsuit says. “The continuing witch hunt that has haunted and targeted Donald Trump since he came down the ‘golden escalator’ at Trump Tower in June of 2015 continues.”
Trump Org.’s general counsel Alan Garten blamed Boris Epshteyn and other lawyers in an email, the Times explained. It goes on to explain that frustration with Epshteyn has been an ongoing problem for months.
“Multiple judges have dismissed Donald Trump’s baseless attempts to evade justice, and no number of lawsuits will deter us from pursuing this fraud,” James’ spokesperson said in a statement. “We sued Donald Trump because he committed extensive financial fraud. That fact hasn’t changed.”