纽约-前总统唐纳德·特朗普周一，他起诉了纽约司法部长莱蒂蒂亚·詹姆斯，在他寻求结束一年之久的民事诉讼时，诉诸了一个熟悉但很少成功的策略调查他声称这纯粹是政治行为。

在詹姆斯要求特朗普在1月7日出庭作证两周后，特朗普在联邦法院提起诉讼，称对包括他的公司资产估值在内的问题的调查侵犯了他的宪法权利，这是“几乎不加掩饰的公开诽谤特朗普及其同伙的努力。”

该诉讼将民主党人詹姆斯描述为“个人对特朗普的蔑视”，并指出她近年来针对特朗普发表的无数言论，包括她支持对他的“死而复生”抗议，她吹嘘自己的办公室起诉了他的政府76次，以及她在2018年竞选期间发布推文称她“盯上了特朗普大厦”，特朗普“时间不多了。”

这位前总统的律师在代表特朗普和他的公司特朗普组织提起的诉讼中写道:“她的使命完全是由政治敌意以及对一名她认为是政治对手的普通公民进行骚扰、恐吓和报复的愿望所引导的。

詹姆斯在一份声明中表示:“特朗普组织一直试图推迟我们对其商业交易的调查，现在唐纳德·特朗普和他同名的公司已经提起诉讼，试图对调查进行附带攻击。”

“明确地说，特朗普和特朗普组织都无权决定他们是否以及在哪里为自己的行为负责。我们的调查将继续下去，不会被吓倒，因为没有人可以凌驾于法律之上，即使是名字叫特朗普的人也不行。”

詹姆斯曾在10月底宣布竞选纽约州长，但本月早些时候，她暂停了竞选活动，并在决定寻求连任州检察长时引用了正在进行的调查。

《纽约时报》首次报道了这起在纽约州北部提起的诉讼的消息。该案件被指派给锡拉丘兹的布伦达·桑恩斯法官，她是特朗普的前任、民主党总统巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)在2014年任命的，但初步诉讼将由奥尔巴尼的一名治安法官处理，这对于联邦法院来说并不罕见。

共和党人特朗普寻求永久禁令，禁止詹姆斯调查他，并阻止她参与针对他和他的公司的任何“民事或刑事”调查，例如她参与的由曼哈顿地区检察官小塞鲁斯·万斯领导的平行刑事调查。特朗普还希望法官宣布詹姆斯侵犯了他的言论自由和正当程序权利。

特朗普已经输掉了多起旨在挫败调查人员的诉讼，包括美国最高法院的一场持续多年的斗争，这场斗争于今年2月结束，万斯获得了他的税务记录。

詹姆斯花了两年多的时间调查特朗普组织是否在资产价值方面误导了银行或税务官员——夸大资产以获得有利的贷款条件，或者最小化资产以获得节税。

去年，詹姆斯的调查人员采访了特朗普的一个儿子，特朗普组织高管埃里克·特朗普。她的办公室向法院申请对年轻的特朗普发出传票，特朗普被列为特朗普公司的总裁，该公司控制着詹姆斯一直在审查的一项资产，在他的律师突然取消了之前安排的证词后，法官强迫他作证。

特朗普的诉讼除了简短提及外，没有明确提到詹姆斯要求他作证。但很明显，他不会在詹姆斯要求的1月7日主动回答问题。与埃里克·特朗普一样，詹姆斯的办公室现在可能不得不发出传票，并向法官申请命令前总统合作。

执法机构很少发出民事传票，要求同样是相关刑事调查对象的人提供证词，部分原因是接受刑事调查的人可以简单地援引第五修正案保持沉默的权利。特朗普的律师不太可能允许他被废黜，除非他们确定他的证词不能在刑事案件中用于指控他。

曼哈顿地区检察官办公室正在对特朗普的商业交易进行平行的刑事调查。虽然民事调查是分开的，但詹姆斯的办公室两者都参与了。

年底即将离任的民主党人万斯(Vance)最近召集了一个新的大陪审团，听取证据，他正在权衡是否在调查中寻求更多的起诉，这导致特朗普组织及其长期首席财务官艾伦·韦斯伯格(Allen Weisselberg)在7月份被控税务欺诈。

Weisselberg对指控他和公司逃避支付给高管的丰厚附加福利税的指控不认罪。

这两项调查至少部分涉及新闻报道和特朗普前私人律师迈克尔·科恩的指控，即特朗普有虚报资产价值的历史。

詹姆斯办公室向地方政府发出传票，作为民事调查的一部分，调查内容涉及特朗普在曼哈顿北部的庄园七泉的记录，以及特朗普因将土地纳入保护信托而获得的税收优惠。万斯后来发出传票，要求获得许多相同的记录。

詹姆斯的办公室也一直在关注与特朗普在纽约市的一栋办公楼、芝加哥的一家酒店和洛杉矶附近的一个高尔夫球场有关的类似问题。她的办公室还赢得了一系列法院裁决，迫使特朗普的公司及其雇佣的一家律师事务所交出了大量记录。

Trump sues NY attorney general, seeking to halt civil probe

NEW YORK -- Former PresidentDonald Trumpsued New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday, resorting to a familiar but seldom successful strategy as he seeks to end a yearslong civilinvestigationinto his business practices that he alleges is purely political.

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court two weeks after James requested that Trump sit for a Jan. 7 deposition, Trump contends the probe into matters including his company's valuation of assets has violated his constitutional rights in a "thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates."

The lawsuit describes James, a Democrat, as having “personal disdain for Trump” and points to numerous statements she's made targeting him in recent years, including her support of “die-in” protests against him, her boast that her office sued his administration 76 times and tweets during her 2018 campaign that she had her “eyes on Trump Tower” and that Trump was “running out of time."

“Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent,” the former president's lawyers wrote in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Trump and his company, the Trump Organization.

In a statement, James said: “The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings and now Donald Trump and his namesake company have filed a lawsuit as an attempted collateral attack on that investigation.”

“To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions. Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.”

James had announced a run for New York governor in late October, but earlier this month, she suspended that campaign and cited ongoing investigations in her decision to instead seek reelection as state attorney general.

News of the lawsuit, filed in upstate New York, was first reported by The New York Times. The case is assigned to Judge Brenda Sannes in Syracuse, who was appointed in 2014 by Trump's predecessor President Barack Obama, a Democrat, but preliminary proceedings will be handled by a magistrate judge in Albany, which isn't unusual for federal court.

Trump, a Republican, seeks a permanent injunction barring James from investigating him and preventing her from being involved in any “civil or criminal” investigations against him and his company, such as a parallel criminal probe she’s a part of that’s being led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. Trump also wants a judge to declare that James violated his free speech and due process rights.

Trump has lost multiple lawsuits aimed at foiling investigators, including a multiyear U.S. Supreme Court fight that ended in February with Vance obtaining his tax records.

James has spent more than two years investigating whether the Trump Organization misled banks or tax officials about the value of assets — inflating them to gain favorable loan terms or minimizing them to reap tax savings.

Last year, James’ investigators interviewed one of Trump’s sons, Trump Organization executive Eric Trump. Her office went to court to enforce a subpoena on the younger Trump, who's listed as president of a Trump company that controls one of the assets James has been scrutinizing, and a judge forced him to testify after his lawyers abruptly canceled a previously scheduled deposition.

Trump's lawsuit didn't explicitly mention James' request for his testimony, aside from a brief reference. But it's clear he won't be showing up Jan. 7, James' requested date, to answer questions voluntarily. As with Eric Trump, James' office will now likely have to issue a subpoena and go to a judge to order the former president to cooperate.

It is rare for law enforcement agencies to issue a civil subpoena for testimony from a person who is also the subject of a related criminal probe, in part because the person under criminal investigation could simply invoke the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. It is unlikely that Trump’s lawyers would allow him to be deposed unless they were sure his testimony couldn’t be used against him in a criminal case.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is conducting a parallel criminal investigation into Trump’s business dealings. Although the civil investigation is separate, James’ office has been involved in both.

Vance, a Democrat who is leaving office at the end of the year, recently convened a new grand jury to hear evidence as he weighs whether to seek more indictments in the investigation, which resulted in tax fraud charges in July against the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg.

Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he and the company evaded taxes on lucrative fringe benefits paid to executives.

Both investigations are at least partly related to allegations made in news reports and by Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets.

James’ office issued subpoenas to local governments as part of the civil probe for records pertaining to Trump’s estate north of Manhattan, known as Seven Springs, and a tax benefit Trump received for placing land into a conservation trust. Vance later issued subpoenas seeking many of the same records.

James’ office has also been looking at similar issues relating to a Trump office building in New York City, a hotel in Chicago and a golf course near Los Angeles. Her office also won a series of court rulings forcing Trump’s company and a law firm it hired to turn over troves of records.

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Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak