WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has subpoenaed New York Attorney General Letitia James as part of an investigation into whether she violated President Donald Trump’s civil rights, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The subpoenas sought records related to the lawsuit James filed against Trump over alleged fraud in his personal business dealings and a separate lawsuit involving the National Rifle Association, according to the people, who could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on Friday on the condition of anonymity.
They mark an escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to scrutinize perceived adversaries of the president, including those like James who had investigated him before his election win last November.
A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, Geoff Burgan, declined to confirm the subpoenas but issued a statement that said, “Any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American. We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights.”
In a separate statement, James’ personal attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, said “if prosecutors carry out this improper tactic and are genuinely interested in the truth, we are ready and waiting with the facts and the law.”
“Investigating the fraud case Attorney General James won against President Trump and his businesses has to be the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign,” Lowell said. “Weaponizing the Department of Justice to try to punish an elected official for doing her job is an attack on the rule of law and a dangerous escalation by this administration.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Department, Natalie Baldassarre, declined to comment.
James, a Democrat, has sued Trump and his Republican administration dozens of times over his policies as president and over how he conducted his private business empire. Trump is appealing the multimillion dollar judgment she won against him in a lawsuit alleging that he defrauded banks and other lenders by giving them financial statements that inflated the value of his properties, including his golf clubs and penthouse in Trump Tower.
Trump says his financial statements actually understated his wealth and that any mistakes in the documents were harmless errors that played no role in banks’ lending decisions. He and his lawyers have repeatedly accused James of engaging in “lawfare” for political purposes — a claim she has denied.
News of the subpoena comes as the Justice Department advances an investigation into the Trump-Russia probe that shadowed Trump for much of his first term as president and as the administration has engaged in a widespread purge from the workforce of law enforcement officials who had been involved in examining the activities of Trump and his supporters.
