- On September 21, New York Attorney General Letitia James indicted Donald Trump, his family and his businesses.
- As of Friday, Donald Trump and Eric Trump had not formally accepted litigation services, court documents said.
- The AG has already accused Trump of “playing tricks” in a lawsuit that alleges massive fraud.
It’s been nearly three weeks since New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a massive fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump and his family business, and her office has accused the former president of “playing tricks” — a formality for allegedly evading the lawsuit Serve.
As of Friday, nearly all of the 16 named defendants in the lawsuit had formally accepted service of the 220-page lawsuit, according to the attorney general’s latest court filing in the case.
But the documents show that two defendants remain unserved — Donald Trump and his son Eric Trump, who has run the Trump Organization since his father won the 2016 election.
The AG had been “diligently” trying to serve all defendants, her office complained in a separate filing in late September, but “game skills” stood in the way.
A footnote in the AG office’s late-September filing complained that “the fact that formal service is now being completed is due to the defendant’s game skills, not a lack of diligent effort”.
The footnote added that “Ms. Haba never responded” to an email from the attorney general asking her to accept services on Trump’s behalf.
Haba, two lawyers for Eric Trump and the attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The AG’s lawsuit alleges that over the past decade, Trump’s multi-billion-dollar real estate and golf resort empire has routinely inflated the value of its properties to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and tax breaks.
The lawsuit seeks a $250 million fine and bans Trump from doing business in New York; James has said she intends to bring the case to trial by the end of 2023.
But three former assistant attorneys general in the New York office told Insider that Trump’s side would do everything possible to delay the case — years if possible.
Trump’s side successfully delayed the pre-litigation investigation for about two years, largely by filing motions and appeals challenging the attorney general’s demands for documents and testimony.