New York Attorney General targets Donald Trump for his White House crimes
New York is continuing to close in on Donald Trump. Last week the news broke that the Manhattan District Attorney is ramping up grand jury testimony against Donald Trump, which should result in criminal charges against him. And yesterday a judge ruled that the separate New York Attorney General civil case against the Trump Organization can have access to financial documents.
Now New York Attorney General Tish James has a message for Trump: “I wrote a letter to the White House today to remind the Trump administration that it must preserve and maintain all presidential records. By law, every bit of this information belongs to the American people, and this president and the White House cannot deprive them of it.”
This is important on two levels. First, it means that if anyone in the Trump administration tries destroying these documents, it’ll be tantamount to felony obstruction. If James catches them in the act, she can use the threat of prison to try to force them to fully cooperate against Trump.
Second, this makes clear that New York State is indeed planning to go after Donald Trump for crimes he committed as president (and perhaps his kids’ antics in the White House as well), or else the AG wouldn’t be targeting Trump’s White House records. This means that New York is targeting Trump for a lot more than just his financial crimes back home. And keep in mind that any evidence of criminality uncovered by the AG’s civil probe can (and surely will) be shared with the Manhattan District Attorney for use in his criminal case.
