Public Employee Press: PEP Talk
Viewpoint
Holding Trump accountable
By MIKE LEE
Starting this month, our new state Attorney General, former New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, will take on the responsibilities of our state’s chief law enforcement officer. The issues she will be tackling are myriad and many, and she has our full support.
In her decades of public service, including representing Brooklyn’s 35th District in the New York City Council and her years as public advocate, Letitia James has never let up on her aggressive pursuit of justice and acting on behalf of the people to make sure that corruption at all levels of government is exposed and rooted out.
Throughout her campaign for her new position, Attorney General James has made it clear she will defend New York’s residents — in particular, our most vulnerable — when she announced her historic candidacy last May. She also pledged that she would “take on everything from corruption to crooked businesses.”
At the top of our attorney general’s to-do list is a certain real estate developer and one-time reality television show host who has spent the last two years as a caudillo without the medals and the huge storeroom of tacky military uniforms. But, unfortunately, the president — Donald J. Trump — daily matches the would-be tyrant’s role with daily doses of bizarre behavior along with inflicting the nation with his revolving cavalcade of creepy characters and right-wing hacks — all of whom are embarrassing us in the eyes of the world on a daily basis.
In her decades of public service, including representing Brooklyn’s 35th District in the New York City Council and her years as public advocate, Letitia James has never let up on her aggressive pursuit of justice and acting on behalf of the people to make sure that corruption at all levels of government is exposed and rooted out.
Aside from Trumps’ reactionary extremist right-wing agenda, a program that includes a vicious racially-charged, anti-immigrant strategy and an economic policy that robs the many for the few, none can be as bad as the eternal stench of corruption that has followed the president since his earliest days as a fortunate son grabbing headlines in the tabloids.
In an interview she gave NBC News in December, James stated she planned a full-scale investigation of every aspect of Trump’s financial empire. “We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well,” she said. “We want to investigate anyone in his orbit who has, in fact, violated the law.”
And there is so much to investigate:
- The attorney general can start first by looking into the early financing of Trump’s real estate empire via a series of complicated and sketchy financial transactions and possible tax dodges, as reported in an extensively researched article in The New York Times in November.
- After the Times report, the New York State Dept. of Taxation and Finance began an investigation. At the news, then-candidate James issued a statement, concluding, “Donald Trump’s days of defrauding Americans are coming to an end.”
- Also, James can investigate the extent to which Trump schemed to game the system to receive tax exemptions and other benefits from New York City and the state to help build his real estate empire since the 1980s.
- James can continue the state’s investigation and lawsuit against the Donald J. Trump Foundation, a charitable trust accused of being in violation of campaign finance laws. In December, the foundation agreed to dissolve under court supervision. This lawsuit is now under James’ charge.
- She also plans to look at whether the president has violated the emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution by accepting favors from foreign states and officials who have used Trump-owned properties in New York City, specifically his hotels and rental properties, as a means to buy favors from the administration.
- Multiple lawsuits by state and federal elected officials have been filed regarding this issue, notably in the U.S. District Court in Maryland, which took on a case regarding the use of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. James plans an investigation into possible legal violations here.
- James said she also will investigate the notorious Trump Tower conclave of long-time Trump minion and convicted felon Paul Manafort, Donald J. Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner’s dealings with a Kremlin-connected attorney during the 2016 presidential campaign. This meeting has been a major focus of the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and once his work is done, James will look into possible violations of New York state law.
Our new attorney general is the warrior we need in order to hold Trump accountable.
