The filing is similar to one from another of Trump\u2019s perceived adversaries, James Comey.<\/b>
\nNew York Attorney General Letitia James asked a federal judge Friday to dismiss a mortgage fraud case against her, calling it a vindictive and politically motivated prosecution brought at the behest of a president who regards her as an enemy.
The motion, which had been expected, lays out a litany of comments from President Donald Trump designed to show the case was driven by personal animus that arose out of James\u2019 lawsuit against Trump and his companies in her capacity as state attorney general.
\u201cThis lawsuit, and AG James\u2019 outspoken criticism of the President, triggered six years of targeted attacks. President Trump and his allies have used every insulting term in their vocabulary to deride AG James and call for criminal penalties in retaliation for the exercise of her rights and fulfillment of her statutory duties to fulfill her obligations as New York state\u2019s attorney general,\u201d lawyers for James wrote in urging that the case be dismissed.
The name-calling by Trump includes describing James as \u201ccrooked,\u201d \u201cscum,\u201d \u201ca monster,\u201d and \u201ccriminal,\u201d according to the filing.
The filing is similar to one from another of Trump\u2019s perceived adversaries, James Comey, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of making a false statement and obstructing Congress and who has said the case against him is similarly vindictive and inspired by the president\u2019s desire for retribution.
James is accused of lying on mortgage papers to get favorable loan terms when purchasing a modest house in Norfolk, Virginia, where she has family. She pleaded not guilty last month, and told reporters outside the courthouse that the Trump administration was using the justice system as a \u201ctool of revenge.\u201d
To bolster their claim of a vindictive prosecution, James\u2019 attorneys also assert that the Justice Department has singled her out for scrutiny \u201cwhile ignoring apparent inconsistencies in the mortgage records of numerous other public officials.\u201d
They say the activities that form the basis of the indictment match the conduct of other high-profile figures who have not been investigated or charged.
\u201cThe only meaningful difference between AG James and these individuals is that AG James is a Democratic Attorney General who spoke out against the President, while the others are his allies and cabinet members,\u201d defense lawyers wrote.
Like Comey, she was charged in Virginia by a hastily appointed U.S. attorney, Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide without any prosecutorial experience who was named to the post by Trump after the administration effectively forced out the prosecutor who had overseen both investigations, Erik Siebert, but had not brought charges in either case.
After Siebert\u2019s resignation, Trump, in an extraordinary social media post, urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute James and other political foes, noting that he had been impeached and indicted himself multiple times. Trump wrote the administration \u201ccan\u2019t delay any longer, it\u2019s killing our reputation and credibility,\u201d adding: \u201cJUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!\u201d
James was first elected in 2018 as New York state\u2019s top lawyer, after holding elected jobs in New York City. She is the first woman elected as the state\u2019s attorney general.
James has been a frequent target of Trump\u2019s ire, especially since she won a staggering judgment against the president and his companies in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. An appeals court overturned the fine, which had ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court\u2019s finding that Trump had committed fraud.
An earlier version of this story misstated who was the target of President Trump\u2019s name-calling. He used the terms \u201ccrooked,\u201d \u201cscum,\u201d \u201ca monster,\u201d and \u201ccriminal\u201d to describe New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to the filing \u2014 not himself.<\/p>\n