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The New York attorney general, Letitia James, said on Monday her investigation of Donald Trumps business affairs would continue undeterred, despite Trump suing to stop it on grounds of political bias, because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.

The New York Times first reported Trumps lawsuit, filed in federal court in Syracuse, New York. It alleges that James, a Democrat, is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent.

James is investigating whether the Trump Organization manipulated valuations of its real estate properties.

In one such instance, as Trump ran for president in 2016, the Guardian reported on differing valuations of a golf club outside New York City. The headline: How Trumps $50m golf club became $1.4m when it came time to pay tax.

The Washington Post and other outlets have reported similar alleged practices at other Trump properties.

Last year, investigators working for James interviewed Eric Trump, one of the former presidents sons and a Trump Organization executive. James went to court to enforce a subpoena and a judge forced the younger Trump to testify, after his lawyers canceled a deposition.

In an investigation that could only result in civil charges, James recently said she would seek to question Donald Trump under oath.

It is rare for law enforcement agencies to issue a civil subpoena for testimony from a person also the subject of a related criminal investigation, partly because the person could simply cite their fifth amendment right to remain silent.

It is unlikely Trumps lawyers would allow him to be deposed unless they were sure his testimony could not be used against him in a criminal case.

Trumps business and tax affairs are also the subject of a criminal investigation run by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, which has been in progress for more than three years. James joined that investigation in May.

The Manhattan case includes a focus on whether the Trump Organization overstated the value of some real estate assets to obtain loans and tax benefits.

In their lawsuit against James, who recently announced a run for governor of New York before stepping back, Trump and the Trump Organization claim the attorney general has violated their rights under the US constitution by pursuing a politically motivated investigation.

Trump and the company pointed to public statements James made before she was elected as attorney general.

The lawsuit also made a plainly political play of its own, echoing Trumps language in office and on the campaign trail when it said: Rather than diligently prosecuting actual crimes in the state of New York which are steadily on the rise James has instead allocated precious taxpayer resources towards a frivolous witch hunt.

Trump and the Trump Organization are seeking a court order barring the investigation from going forward.

In a statement, Trumps attorney, Alina Habba, said: By filing this lawsuit, we intend to not only hold her accountable for her blatant constitutional violations, but to stop her bitter crusade to punish her political opponent in its tracks.

In her own statement, James said: The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings and now Donald Trump and his namesake company have filed a lawsuit as an attempted collateral attack on that investigation.

To be clear, neither Mr Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions. Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.

James also noted that in August 2020 she filed a motion to compel the Trump Organization to provide documents and testimony from multiple witnesses regarding several, specific Trump Organization properties and transactions.

Since then, the court has ruled in Attorney General James favor multiple times.

Last month, Trumps former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen who served a three-year sentence for offences including campaign finance violations relating to a payoff to the porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims an affair with Trump was asked about the prospect of Trump being indicted in the criminal investigation in Manhattan.

Cohen said he was confident prosecutors could indict Donald Trump tomorrow if they really wanted and be successful.

Asked if he was confident you did help Donald Trump commit crimes, Cohen told NBC: I can assure you that Donald Trump is guilty of his own crimes. Was I involved in much of the inflation and deflation of his assets? The answer to that is yes.

In July, the longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in what a prosecutor in Vances office called a sweeping and audacious 15-year tax fraud.

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New York attorney general vows Trump investigation will proceed undeterred - The Guardian

When I first heard the rumblings that Donald Trump could become the next speaker of the House, I rolled my eyes.

What fresh insanity, right? Like most people, I believed the speaker of the House had to be an elected member of Congress.

Think back to the speakers youve heard of. Not just the most recent ones, but also Sam Rayburn of Texas. Tip ONeill, the Boston pol who dominated the House of Representatives when I was coming of age. Newt Gingrich, who changed the course of conservative American politics. James K. Polk! Henry Clay!

Every single one of them, and every single one of their predecessors going back to Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania in 1789, was a member of the House. So pardon my ignorance for thinking it was a requirement.

In fact, there is no law or constitutional mandate that limits the speakership to an elected representative. There isnt even a House rule about it. Its just a norm, and we know what those are worth these days.

Opinion Columnist

Nicholas Goldberg

Nicholas Goldberg served 11 years as editor of the editorial page and is a former editor of the Op-Ed page and Sunday Opinion section.

To become speaker, all a person needs to do is win an absolute majority of votes cast by the elected members of the House. That person could be the D.C. dog catcher or some wild-eyed madman proclaiming the end of days outside the Capitol or a child chosen at random from a nearby fourth-grade classroom.

Or, worse yet, it could be Donald Trump.

The first I heard of this awful idea was back in June, when it was floated by Trump sycophant Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). He suggested that if the GOP were to win a majority in the House in the midterms as it is expected to do its members could then vote Trump in as their leader.

Can you just imagine Nancy Pelosi having to hand that gavel to Donald J. Trump? Gaetz crowed in a speech in June.

A Trump spokesman dismissed the idea, saying the former president had zero desire to be speaker.

But then in November, former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows suggested it again. As you know, you dont have to be an elected member of Congress to be speaker, he added on Trump confidant Stephen K. Bannons War Room podcast.

Then Bannon chimed in, suggesting the ex-president could come in [as speaker] for 100 days to sort things out and then go back to running for president in 2024. By sort things out, he apparently meant beginning impeachment proceedings against President Biden.

Two weeks ago, Gaetz announced that hed spoken to Trump about the speakership but refused to offer any details. Other right-wing pundits and pols have come out in favor of the idea.

None of this should be taken too seriously. These guys are provocateurs. Then again, given the state of politics in the U.S. right now, can even lunatic propositions be ruled out?

Some experts have opined that the speaker rumors were just a way of trolling House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), who is in line to become speaker if the GOP takes control.

They suggest the idea is being pushed by the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus because of dissatisfaction with McCarthy. Even though hes a reliable Trump bootlicker, apparently McCarthy is not enough of a wacko for Reps. Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and their ilk.

Trump, unsurprisingly, has failed to rule out taking charge of the House. Well, Ive heard the talk and its getting more and more, he said. He added that he had a good relationship with Kevin and hopefully we will do everything traditionally.

Id consider that weak reassurance if I were McCarthy.

The big question in my mind is whats in it for Trump? Hed get some headlines, yeah. And some more disruption, plus an opportunity to press Nancy Pelosis face into the mud.

But its hardly his sort of job. Effective speakers do a lot of glad-handing, do favors, deal with minor issues like Fix the carpet in my office and other grunt work, says Matthew Green, a professor of political science at Catholic University who studies Congress. You need to be loyal to the institution and to the members of the institution.

Not that the job isnt powerful. Speakers have a role in appointing committee members and chairs, decide points of order, recognize who gets to speak on the floor and have significant control over what measures move forward. They can dole out or withhold favors. They play a leading role in negotiations with the president and theyre usually leader of the majority party caucus. Theyre also third in line of presidential succession, after the vice president.

It would be a disaster if Trump were given the gavel. Because, first, he shouldnt be in any position of power whatsoever. But also because Congress should be overseen by an elected official, accountable to voters not by an unelected, irresponsible demagogue with only his own interests at heart.

One Democrat recently introduced a bill to bar nonmembers of Congress from becoming speaker. But it strikes me as unlikely to become law.

Theres also the possibility that if Trump became speaker, it could be challenged in court. But theres no guarantee the court would take such a highly political case.

So should we prepare ourselves for Speaker Trump? Well, probably not, but when it comes to our ex-president, you cant rule out any bit of chicanery or malevolence. Trump and his acolytes could be trolling for the heck of it, or it could be a sinister plot, like the equally unimaginable but all too real effort to delegitimize and reverse the 2020 election.

I didnt take that too seriously either at first, and boy was I wrong.

@Nick_Goldberg

More:
Nicholas Goldberg: Is there a worse idea than Speaker Trump? - Los Angeles Times

Trump winning kind of showed, Hey, anybody can do this, said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a former college football coach elected in 2020. President Trump opened the doors for a lot of people. Hes not a lawyer. He hadnt been in politics before. Hes an outsider. So that influenced my decision.

I started a trend, didnt I? Tuberville quipped.

Missouri's Roy Blunt, the No. 4 Senate GOP leader, took the well-traveled route to the upper chamber spending nearly a decade and a half in the House before moving up, with leadership credentials to boot. But Blunt said he's not surprised that Trump's background has inspired more celebrities to mull runs for office.

The logical response to President Trumps election would be people running who dont have political experience but have wide recognition, said Blunt, who is retiring next year. Two House Republicans are vying in the primary to replace him, but they're currently trailing the state's former governor and sitting attorney general.

Running as a household name certainly has its perks, particularly in a costly statewide race. Besides the obvious name recognition, they can raise money more easily or tap their own personal fortunes to fund their campaigns than their competition while claiming the outsider status often coveted in congressional runs. And with the wide reach of cable talk shows, already well-known candidates can communicate to voters fairly easily without paying for advertisements.

On the other hand, celebrity candidates can be unaccustomed to the intense vetting and media scrutiny that comes with running for office.

I joke that the most expensive walk in Washington is from the House to the Senate, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another onetime House member. Celebrity gives you an instant attention, but it also has a downside. You have to prove that youre more than a celebrity.

Walker, for one, is facing questions about his marital history and academic credentials in the Georgia Senate race. Oz has to battle skepticism about his promotion of scientifically dubious remedies on his show, not to mention his Pennsylvania residency given his years living in New Jersey.

The celebrity doctor has emphasized that he grew up in the Philadelphia region, votes in the state and went to graduate school there. Oz has also defended his medical advice. He told a Senate panel that he has given the products he promotes to his family, but also said he recognized that oftentimes they don't have the scientific muster to present as fact.

Theres also the stark knowledge gap that virtually any candidate who came to Congress through entertainment or sports would confront when it comes to writing legislation. Longtime lawmakers warn that the resulting erosion of policy prowess could lead to further partisanship in a chamber thats already bitterly divided.

These celebrities dont come here with an interest in legislating. They come here with an interest in grandstanding and getting TV clips, because thats what theyve spent their entire career doing, said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who also began his career in the House after time in the state legislature.

My worry is that as you get more people here who have no experience in cutting a deal, it makes a place thats already pretty dysfunctional even worse," Murphy added.

That shift away from Hill deal-cutting practice could be dramatic in the next Congress: All five of the Senate Republicans who've announced their retirements next year are former House members, with collective decades of bipartisanship under their belts.

And the Senate GOP conference could see several new members with zero legislative experience. In addition to Oz and Walker, author J.D. Vance is mounting his own campaign in Ohio.

A spokesperson for Oz said in a statement that he has "spent his career empowering patients and audiences alike to change their lives for the better and is "an outsider." The spokesperson added that "it's that outside the Beltway, people-first mentality that Dr. Oz champions and will make D.C. more accountable when he becomes the next Senator for Pennsylvania."

Fame outside of politics "gets your foot in the door, that gets eyeballs on you, but you still got to perform, said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), the current frontrunner in his party's primary to capture that Buckeye State Senate seat next year.

Trump had that. He obviously was able to convince a large part of the country that he was the real deal, said Ryan, who's spent 18 years in the House. But he warned that "when the lights come on, youve got to be able to perform. People are gonna love you if you're a celebrity, and it's more romanticized. But then they take a good close look at you, and you're gonna pass muster or not.

Democrats have seen celebrity candidates on their side of the aisle, too.

Most recently, there was billionaire Mike Bloomberg, whose bid for president tanked but not before racking up endorsements from Hill Democrats. (Bloomberg also served as New York City mayor.) Perhaps the most famous examples are former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), a Saturday Night Live comedian turned political activist, and pro basketball player turned senator, Bill Bradley of New Jersey.

And some Democratic candidates have achieved rock star status just by running repeatedly for higher office; former Rep. Beto ORourke recently launched a campaign for Texas governor after two consecutive unsuccessful bids for the White House and the Senate.

It can be hard to go from a position where people like you and say kind things to you and then when you become a candidate and your words get dissected and it actually matters how youre able to handle that is, I think, important , observed Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Im not suggesting that a football star or a TV personality cant do that, but I do think that sometimes its just harder for them.

Walker and Ozs candidacies, of course, dont quite mean that celebrity will become a requirement for GOP Senate viability. GOP Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long are trying to replace Blunt in Missouri, while Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) has Trump's backing in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). And first-term Republican Sens. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Roger Marshall of Kansas are all former House members.

Despite his own roots in the House, Cramer said hes come to appreciate higher-profile Senate candidates for at least one reason: Being elected to Congress isnt the biggest thing thats ever happened to them. And I think thats sort of nice.

Theres no question that Donald Trump broke the mold, Cramer added. I dont know that hes the new mold, but he certainly broke the old one.

Read more:
Senate GOP feels another Trump effect: The rise of celeb candidates - POLITICO

Donald Trump appeared on Fox Business this week and was asked about recent developments on Capitol Hill. Predictably, the former president complained that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is "a disaster," condemned the popular new infrastructure law, and whined that Republicans didn't go far enough to threaten the United States with default before raising the debt ceiling.

But before moving on, Trump also emphasized what he saw as his most pressing concern.

"And we have a bigger problem, because they have a so-called voting rights bill, which is a voting rights for Democrats, because Republicans will never be elected again if that happens, if that passes."

The on-air comments came on the heels of a related written statement from two weeks ago in which he said the Freedom to Vote Act would "make it almost impossible for Republicans to get elected in the future."

To the extent that reality still has any meaning, these claims are demonstrably absurd. Virginia, for example, implemented some important and progressive voter-access reforms in recent years, and Republican candidates nevertheless scored major victories up and down the ballot in last month's elections.

But factual details aside, consider the subtext of Trump's arguments: The more Americans are allowed to participate in their own democracy, the more difficult it is for Republicans to win elections. It's both a recipe for partisan voter-suppression tactics, and a subtle acknowledgment that, from Trump's own perspective, the American mainstream isn't eager to buy what the GOP is selling.

As for the voting rights legislation the former president is eager to derail, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continues to make new strides, endorsing a plan this week to advance the Freedom to Vote Act by creating an exception to the chamber's filibuster rules. As NBC News reported, the New York Democrat addressed the strategy again last night during a special conference meeting.

Schumer said on the call that the Senate would vote on a revised version of the Build Back Better Act and a potential rules change if Republicans do not drop the filibuster early in the new year.... Changing the filibuster rules would allow a vote on sweeping legislation to expand access to the ballot box and safeguard against election subversion.

Before wrapping up for the calendar year, there was evidence of meaningful momentum among Senate Democrats for protecting voting rights, even if that means creating a carve-out to the institution's existing filibuster rules. Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona continues to stand in the way of progress, but Schumer is clearly determined to push forward anyway.

Watch this space.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

Link:
Trump says more than he intended while slamming voting rights bill - MSNBC

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