- Donald Trump filed appellate papers on Wednesday that seek to end a NY probe of the Trump Organization.
- He hopes to overturn a federal judge's decision from Friday that had dismissed his efforts to end the inquiry.
- NY Attorney General Letitia James has investigated Trump's financial dealings for 3 years.
Donald Trump filed appellate papers on Wednesday that are his latest effort to stymie a 3-year inquiry into his business by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The papers, filed in US District Court in Albany, came in quick response to a decision by a judge of that court, Brenda K. Sannes, who on Friday dismissed Trump's effort out of hand.
Trump says in his new filing that he will ask the US Court of Appeals, the next federal court up, to reverse Sannes' decision, which tossed his lawsuit after James defended her probe by asserting she has found "substantial" evidence of financial wrongdoing.
Trump and James have been at loggerheads throughout her investigation, which she has said has uncovered a pattern of self-serving misstatements throughout a decade of the former president's annual financial statements.
Trump has used the allegedly error-riddled statements to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in bank loans and tax breaks.
An enforcement action — likely a massive lawsuit against Trump and his business, possibly seeking to shut it down entirely — will be filed in the near future, James has warned.
Still, Trump has fought — and delayed — the inquiry for two years, in great stacks of litigation filed in three New York courthouses.
In addition to this new appellate effort, Trump is appealing a New York state Supreme Court's finding that he is in contempt of court for failing to fully comply with James' subpoena for his business documents and electronics.
Trump has paid $110,000 in accumulated fines to the AG for that failure; the check is being held in escrow while the contempt-of-court appeal continues. Meanwhile the AG has signaled she may ask for higher fines if there is continued non-compliance.
Trump has yet to say if he will further appeal a NY appellate court's order that he, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., sit for sworn depositions in the AG's probe.
A spokesperson for the AG did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's latest filing.