Donald Trump's latest legal maneuvering could be aimed at keeping the public — and his own family — from seeing his succession plan.
On Wednesday, Trump sued New York Attorney General Letitia James in Florida state court to keep her office from obtaining documents pertaining to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. The former president's legal team reportedly tried to stop him from filing the lawsuit.
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin wondered why Trump filed the lawsuit.
"The lawsuit accuses N.Y. A.G. Tish James of pursuing him for political reasons, rhetoric heard before. So beyond smearing James, what's the real purpose of the lawsuit?" she asked in a Twitter thread.
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"My sense is that it represents Trump's Hail Mary attempt to get out of divulging the thing, next to his tax returns, he least wants anyone to see: the documents governing the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust," she wrote.
"The Trust is the ultimate owner of the various entities that comprise the Trump Organization," she explained. "But it is also more. As Trump himself notes in this new lawsuit, 'The Trust contains his private estate plan and present decisions regarding the disposition of his assets upon death.' And he is hellbent on ensuring that New York's attorney general -- and by extension, the public -- don't learn about that plan or the true state of his assets."
"The A.G.'s office has, of course, been after those documents for months. How do I know? Because Trump attached correspondence between his lawyers and the A.G.'s team to his complaint. You can see that complaint and the emails below," she said with a link to the document.
"That link also contains the letter the A.G. sent to the judge overseeing its case against the Trump Organization," Rubin wrote. "Trump, they say, is 'attempting shield the key documents governing the structure of his business conglomerate and ownership of his business assets from review.' And meanwhile, we await a ruling from that judge on the A.G.'s request for a preliminary injunction that, among other relief, would prevent the Trumps from moving any material assets outside the Trump Org.--and beyond New York authorities' reach."
She end her thread by noting, "And finally, AP is now reporting at least one aspect of the relief the A.G.'s office asked for -- the appointment of an independent monitor to essentially babysit the Trump Org. -- has happened."
