23 November 2023 , 09:24
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Donald Trump wished his supporters a happy Thanksgiving while also branding New York Attorney General Letitia James "racist and incompetent."
In a post on his media platform Truth Social, the former president said James had let "Murder & Violent Crime FLOURISH, & Businesses FLEE." He said: "Happy Thanksgiving to ALL, including the Racist & Incompetent Attorney General of New York State, Letitia “Peekaboo” James."
Trump, a fan of capital letters, remains angry over the New York civil fraud case against him and the recent rejection of a mistrial by Democrat Judge Arthur Engoron. He called Engoron - who rejected claims the proceedings are blighted by political bias - a "psycho."
The suit against has the potential to ban the 45th president from doing business in New York and James is seeking over $300 million in penalties in the legal action alleging Trump, his company and top executives exaggerated his wealth by billions of dollars on his financial statements.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James (AP)Engoron has already ruled that Trump and other defendants engaged in fraud, but the trial is to determine the remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records. The verdict is up to Engoron, not a jury.
The legal woes come at an increasingly difficult time for the man way out in front in the race to become the next Republican nominee for president. Trump is facing 91 charges across four criminal cases and his older sister Maryanne Barry Trump passed away earlier this month.
Trump and his late sister were generally on good terms and the former judge once backed her brother in his political ambitions, but later became a critic of him in private, branding him "cruel" and a man with "no principles."
Trump's rant in fullMaryanne was recorded in a secret conversation in 2020, according to the Washington Post. In it, she said her brother had "no principles" in regard to his political stances on major issues. She said: "All he wants to do is appeal to his base. He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this."
Maryanne is also reported to have said her brother was "cruel," adding: "His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God … I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy s**t."
The conversation was recorded by their niece Mary Trump, who is the son of Fred Trump Jr, the eldest son of Fred Trump Sr, a real estate developer and business mogul. Mary and the former president have a particularly public feud and they remain engaged in a lawsuit in which the latter claims Mary and New York Times reporters conducted an “insidious plot” he claims they masterminded to obtain his income tax records.
Maryanne, meanwhile, was reported to be on the way to repairing the relationship with her brother and the two even met over the summer at Trump's club in Bedminster, New Jersey, a source told ABC. Maryanne had benefited from the relationship with her brother before, according to a report in the New York Times, after she became an assistant US attorney in 1974 and then a senior judge on the US district court for New Jersey, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.
Trump has slammed the media in reaction to his sister's death in a Truth Social post, claiming it "went after her mercilessly."
Since her death, Trump has lashed out at the media and its supposed "merciless" treatment of Barry. "Her life was largely problem-free, PERFECT, until I made it difficult for her when I decided to run for president," he claimed on his media site Truth Social.
It was well known that Barry, a successful judge, had received her first judicial appointment from President Ronald Regan in 1983, helped in no small part by Donald Trump’s then-fixer and mafia-linked lawyer Roy Cahn. Barry was later appointed to the appeals court in 1999 under President Bill Clinton.
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"The Fake News, and others, went after her mercilessly, and because of the fact that she felt it inappropriate, due to her position, to defend herself," she said, "It just never stopped!
"While tough and strong, she was made to suffer in those years from 2016 until her retirement." She retired in 2019 amid an investigation into her family’s tax practices.
Of his sister, Trump added: "My great sister, Maryanne, passed away yesterday at the age of 86... A truly beautiful woman, tall and elegant, with a presence like no other, she was also a tremendous student, intellect, and judge, in charge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, just below the US Supreme Court."
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