Letitia James, the New York attorney general, announcing the Trump lawsuit on Wednesday in Manhattan. “This has nothing to do with politics,” she said of her investigation this summer. “It has to do with the law.”Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

New York, September 23 (RHC)-- New York’s attorney general has sued Donald Trump, three of his adult children and other executives at the Trump Organization, accusing them of widespread financial fraud. 

Letitia James announced the charges on Thursday, saying that for over a decade the Trumps “grossly” inflated their business’s net worth by billions of dollars, while deceiving lenders, insurers and tax officials with false and misleading financial statements. 

Attorney General James’s civil lawsuit seeks a quarter-billion dollars in penalties and to bar the Trumps from operating a business in New York.  James is also sharing her findings with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the IRS and the Department of Justice to aid any future criminal prosecutions of the Trumps.

Attorney General Letitia James told reporters: “The pattern of fraud and deception that was used by Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization for their own financial benefit is astounding. … Claiming you have money that you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal.  It’s the art of the steal.  And there cannot be different rules for different people in this country or in this state, and former presidents are no different.”