- Trump filed appellate papers Wednesday that seek to end an investigation of the Trump Organization.
- He hopes to overturn a federal judge's decision Friday that dismissed his efforts to end the inquiry.
- Attorney General Letitia James of New York has investigated Trump's financials for three years.
Former President Donald Trump filed appellate papers on Wednesday in his latest effort to stymie a three-year inquiry into his business by Attorney General Letitia James of New York.
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 investigation by saying she had 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 Trump's annual financial statements.
He has used the 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 said.
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 attorney general for that failure; the check is being held in escrow while the contempt-of-court appeal continues. Meanwhile, James has signaled she may ask for higher fines if there is continued noncompliance.
Trump has yet to say if he will further appeal a New York appellate court's order that he, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. sit for sworn depositions in the investigation.
A spokesperson for the James did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's latest filing.