Former President Donald Trump is touting what he says is a "big win" over "Trump hating" New York Attorney General Letitia James.
James filed a $250 million civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, the ex-president and three of his adult children last year, accusing them of misrepresenting business assets to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits.
An appeals court in New York on Tuesday removed the former president's daughter Ivanka Trump from the list of defendants, dismissing all claims associated with her, due to the statute of limitations. The decision did not affect the other defendants.
Donald Trump, currently campaigning for a return to the White House, thanked the appeals court in a Truth Social post hours later. He accused James of participating in "election interference," despite the suit being filed before he announced his 2024 candidacy.
"A big win against Letitia 'Peekaboo' James, the Trump Hating Attorney General of New York State, today," Trump wrote. "The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court of Manhattan terminated a large portion of the case."
"In conjunction with the DOJ and others, this HOAX is all about Election Interference pertaining to the 2024 Presidential Election," he added. "This is a case that never should have been brought. Thank you to the Appellate Division!"
Newsweek has reached out to the office of James via email for comment.
The remaining case is scheduled to go to trial on October 2. A spokeswoman for James told Reuters that there was a "mountain of evidence" against the remaining defendants and promised to hold Trump "accountable."
"There is a mountain of evidence that shows Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for significant economic gain," the spokeswoman said. "This decision allows us to hold him accountable for that fraud, and we intend to do so."
Trump lawyer Chris Kise told Newsweek via email that the decision "represents the first step towards ending a case that should have never been filed" and had curtailed "the previously unlimited reach of the attorney general."
"Going forward, we remain confident that once all the real facts are known, there will be no doubt President Trump has built an extraordinarily successful business empire and has simply done nothing other than generate tremendous profits for those financial institutions involved in the transactions at issue in the litigation," said Kise.
Trump has sat for depositions twice as part of James' fraud investigation. During the first deposition, in August 2022, he did not answer any questions other than confirming his name, repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment.
During the second deposition, in April, the former president did answer questions, which some legal experts later suggested was a mistake that may have harmed his defense.
In addition to lawsuits, Trump is also facing felony criminal charges in New York state and at the federal level. The former president denies any wrongdoing in all of his civil and criminal court cases, maintaining that they are all part of a politically motivated "witch hunt."
