Stefanik slams NY AG’s case brought against Trump, adult children

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) on Wednesday slammed New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) after she filed a lawsuit against former President Trump for alleged tax fraud, calling the litigation an “illegitimate witch hunt.”

Stefanik, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, released a statement criticizing James for running a “deranged anti-Trump mission” for years, even before she became attorney general.

“This is just another chapter of an illegitimate witch hunt against President Trump,” Stefanik said, arguing the lawsuit against Trump will hurt Democrats in election races. “Republicans are going to surge to victory across New York because hardworking New Yorkers are tired of corrupt Albany Democrats putting their own deranged anti-Trump obsession ahead of supporting law and order.”

After a three-year investigation examining whether the Trump Organization misled tax investors by inflating property values to get investments and then deflating those property values to get tax benefits, James on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan against Trump and three of his adult children.

James is seeking $250 million in financial penalties and is pushing to bar Trump and the Trump Organization from entering into any real estate acquisitions in New York.

Trump, who has nicknamed the Democratic attorney general “Peekaboo James,” called her “racist” and a “failed A.G.,” while his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump also criticized the move as a witch hunt.