New York Attorney General Tish James slam dunks Donald Trump
Donald Trump gave away that even he didn’t think his DMZ stunt with Kim Jong Un was a “win” for him, when he quickly moved on to trying a new kind of distraction. Trump launched a tirade about New York State, which has been investigating his fraudulent activities. Suffice it to say that Trump got the attention of New York Attorney General Tish James – even though it doesn’t appear he knows her name. Trump tweeted this nonsense:
It is very hard and expensive to live in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo uses his Attorney General as a bludgeoning tool for his own purposes. They sue on everything, always in search of a crime. I even got sued on a Foundation which took Zero rent & expenses & gave away more money than it had. Going on for years, originally brought by Crooked Hillary’s Campaign Chair, A.G. Eric Schneiderman, until forced to resign for abuse against women. They never even looked at the disgusting Clinton Foundation. Now Cuomo’s A.G. is harassing all of my New York businesses in search of anything at all they can find to make me look as bad as possible. So, on top of ridiculously high taxes, my children and companies are spending a fortune on lawyers. No wonder people and businesses are fleeing New York in record numbers!
There are several problems here. For starters, the Trump Foundation has been caught committing so much financial fraud, it’s been forcibly shut down. Second, he’s just making things up about the Clinton Foundation, which has always been rated cleanly by oversight groups. Third, population numbers show that people are not “fleeing New York” in any numbers. But the biggest trouble here is that Trump doesn’t appear to know who the New York Attorney General is, or how the New York Attorney General’s office even works.
Donald Trump implied that the New York AG works for the Governor of New York. In actuality, the New York AG is elected directly by the people, independent of the Governor. After Trump’s tirade, New York Attorney General Tish James posted this response: “As the elected AG of NY, I have a sworn duty to protect & uphold state law. My office will follow the facts of any case, wherever they lead. Make no mistake: No one is above the law, not even the President. P.S. My name is Letitia James. (You can call me Tish.)”
In other words, New York State is coming for Donald Trump for the crimes he’s committed within the state’s jurisdiction – and the New York Attorney General isn’t going to back down just because Trump happens to be the sitting President. He’s got a real problem on his hands, and he can’t use the current office to hide from it.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report