Following Trump electoral win, New York Attorney General Letitia James (pictured in February) noted that the New York attorney general’s office was ready to battle a second Trump administration, saying she will "continue to stand tall in the face of injustice, revenge, retribution." File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A lawyer for New York Attorney General Letitia James said President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration weeks from now will have no effect on his multimillion dollar civil judgment after a request to toss it by Trump's legal team.
"The ordinary burdens of civil litigation do not impede the president's official duties in a way that violates the U.S. Constitution," New York's Deputy Solicitor General Judith Vale wrote Tuesday in a letter to Trump's appellate lawyer and nominee for solicitor general, D. John Sauer, ABC reported.
The incoming president, his adult sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., along with Trump Organization executives, owe roughly $490 million including interest in a $454 million civil fraud judgment stemming from a prior ruling that determined the Trumps repeatedly inflated their net worth in order to secure better terms to loans over at least a decade.
Trump, 78, has since appealed the ruling as he looks to begin a second term on Jan. 20.
Vale wrote in her letter that, because a president does not have immunity from civil litigation, the state's attorney general will continue to defend the judgment against Trump during his appeal because James has no legal mechanism preventing her from doing so. Meanwhile, a ruling could arrive at any time.
Sauer requested last month that James drop the civil case against Trump so as to "cure" any perceived partisan divide to improve "the health of our Republic," he wrote in part. He cited prior dismissals in Trump's classified document and federal election interference cases.
However, Vale responded there is "no merit to your claim that the pendency of defendants' own appeal will impede Mr. Trump's official duties as president," she wrote in rejecting Sauer's request.
Following Trump electoral win in November, James, 66, noted that the attorney general's office was ready to battle a second Trump administration, saying she will "continue to stand tall in the face of injustice, revenge, retribution."
"Accordingly," the letter from New York's deputy solicitor general said, "The various actions taken by the Special Counsel's office or the District Attorney's Office of New York County in the respective criminal cases brought by those offices against Mr. Trump are irrelevant here."
