Former President Donald Trump's attempt to use a Florida lawsuit to stall New York's $250 million civil fraud case against him was rejected by a federal judge who called some of his arguments "plainly frivolous."
Trump's lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James will likely fail because Florida doesn't have jurisdiction over out-of-state officials, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said in a ruling Wednesday denying Trump's motion for a preliminary injunction against James.
The judge, who had already sanctioned Trump's lawyers in a separate suit the former president filed against Hillary Clinton, warned against continuing the case against James, saying the suit against James "has all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous." That would make the lawyers in the James suit vulnerable to sanctions as well.
Trump's lawyer, Timothy Weber, didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Middlebrooks said an injunction would improperly block a court-appointed monitor over the Trump Organization from doing her work, and get in the way of James's evidence-gathering efforts in the fraud case, which heads to trial in October 2023. The judge noted that Trump's company was just convicted in a related criminal tax case, highlighting the need for oversight.
"The Trump Organization has already been found guilty by a New York jury of several counts of tax fraud," the judge wrote. "To now impede a civil enforcement action by the New York Attorney General would be unprecedented and contrary to the interests of the people of New York."
Trump had argued an injunction was warranted to block James from gaining access to his revocable trust and making details of his estate planning public. Middlebrooks said that concern was "quintessentially speculative."
James is gathering evidence to prove her claim that Trump, his three oldest children and his company manipulated the value of his assets for years to deceive banks and insurers. The judge in her case appointed a monitor to oversee parts of Trump's business during the litigation.
The case is Trump v. James, 9:22-cv-81780, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (West Palm Beach).
