Former President Donald Trump and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., slammed New York Democrat Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday after her office released a statement saying that they had launched a criminal investigation into the former president’s business, the Trump Organization.
James’ office is working with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s Office on matters related to real estate dealings and other related financial matters.
“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the Organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” James’ office said in a statement. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment.”
Trump responded to the news by saying that it was a “corrupt” investigation “in desperate search of a crime.”
Trump said:
The Attorney General of New York literally campaigned on prosecuting Donald Trump even before she knew anything about me. She said that if elected, she would use her office to look into “every aspect” of my real estate dealings. She swore that she would “definitely sue” me. She boasted on video that she would be, and I quote, “a real pain in the ass.” She declared, “just wait until I’m in the Attorney General’s office,” and, “I’ve got my eyes on Trump Tower.” She also promised that, if elected, she would “join with law enforcement and other Attorney Generals [sic] across this nation in removing this President from office,” and, “It’s important that everyone understand that the days of Donald Trump are coming to an end.”
The Attorney General made each of these statements, not after having had an opportunity to actually look at the facts, but BEFORE she was even elected, BEFORE she had seen even a shred of evidence. This is something that happens in failed third world countries, not the United States. If you can run for a prosecutor’s office pledging to take out your enemies, and be elected to that job by partisan voters who wish to enact political retribution, then we are no longer a free constitutional democracy.
Trump Jr. posted a video on Twitter of James making those remarks and other remarks, including falsely calling Trump an “illegitimate” president.
“There is nothing more corrupt than an investigation in desperate search of a crime,” Trump Jr. wrote in the tweet that featured the video. “If this isn’t flagrant abuse of political office I don’t know what is! This is banana republic stuff right here and it’s happening in America today.”
WATCH:
There is nothing more corrupt than an investigation in desperate search of a crime. If this isn’t flagrant abuse of political office I don’t know what is! This is banana republic stuff right here and it’s happening in America today. pic.twitter.com/Hlfh4iNXDF
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 19, 2021
“Likewise, the District Attorney’s office has been going after me for years based on a lying, discredited low life, who was not listened to or given credibility by other prosecutorial offices, and sentenced to 3 years in prison for lying and other events unrelated to me,” Trump said, referring to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen. “These investigations have also been going on for years with members and associates of the Trump Organization being viciously attacked, harassed, and threatened, in order to say anything bad about the 45th President of the United States. This would include having to make up false stories. Numerous documents, all prepared by large and prestigious law and accounting firms, have been examined, and many hours of testimony have been taken from many people, some of whom I have not seen in years.”
Trump said that the prosecution was the continuation of a “partisan witch hunt” by Democrats who are not focusing on crises that are happening around the country, like rising crime rates and the crisis on the Southern Border.
“Working in conjunction with Washington, these Democrats want to silence and cancel millions of voters because they don’t want ‘Trump’ to run again,” Trump said. “As people are being killed on the sidewalks of New York at an unprecedented rate, as drugs and crime of all kinds are flowing through New York City at record levels, with absolutely nothing being done about it, all they care about is taking down Trump.”
Trump concluded:
I have built a great company, employed thousands of people, and all I do is get unfairly attacked and abused by a corrupt political system. It would be so wonderful if the effort used against President Donald J. Trump, who lowered taxes and regulations, rebuilt our military, took care of our Veterans, created Space Force, fixed our border, produced our vaccine in record-setting time (years ahead of what was anticipated), and made our Country great and respected again, and so much more, would be focused on the ever more dangerous sidewalks and streets of New York.
If these prosecutors focused on real issues, crime would be obliterated, and New York would be great and free again!
Trump Jr. said in a statement to The Daily Wire that James was “disgracing herself, her office, and the rule of law with her shameless and transparent politically motivated prosecution of the Trump Organization,” accusing her of “weaponizing” her office to “damage her political enemies.”
Trump Jr.’s full statement:
The Attorney General of New York is disgracing herself, her office, and the rule of law with her shameless and transparent politically motivated prosecution of the Trump Organization. When she was running to become New York’s Attorney General, prior to even seeing a shred evidence, she pronounced my father guilty of crimes and promised her partisan political supporters that she would target him. None of this is about “justice,” to AG James, it’s about weaponizing her public office to damage her political enemies and it’s disgusting.
In a separate tweet containing his father’s statement, Trump Jr. called James’ efforts a “flagrant witch hunt,” saying if James’ investigation is “not a political persecution I’m not sure what it is.”
My father’s statement on the flagrant witch hunt that started before New York’s Attorney General even took office and apparently before she’d actually seen any actual evidence. (Apparently minor details these days)
If that’s not a political persecution I’m not sure what it is. pic.twitter.com/1HnmMp1Z6s— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 19, 2021