Former President Donald Trump on Friday dropped his lawsuit against New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ office, according to court documents.

What You Need To Know

  • Former President Donald Trump on Friday dropped his lawsuit against New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ office

  • Trump sued James in November in response to her lawsuit alleging he and his company mislead banks and others about the value of assets; he also sought to prevent James, a Democrat, from having any oversight over the family trust that controls his company

  • Trump has repeatedly railed against James' investigation, calling it a politically motivated "witch hunt"

  • The action comes one day after a federal judge sanctioned Trump and attorney Alina Habba, ordering them to pay nearly $1 million for filing what he said was a bogus lawsuit against Trump's 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and others

Trump sued James in November in response to her lawsuit alleging he and his company mislead banks and others about the value of assets in a practice she dubbed “The art of the steal.” 

The former Republican president also sought to prevent James, a Democrat, from having any oversight over the family trust that controls his company.

The one-page order says that Trump "voluntarily dismisses his claims" against James "without prejudice."

Trump has repeatedly railed against James' investigation, calling it a politically motivated "witch hunt."

The action comes one day after a federal judge sanctioned Trump and attorney Alina Habba, ordering them to pay nearly $1 million for filing what he said was a bogus lawsuit against Trump's 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and others.

“This case should never have been brought," U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks wrote in a blistering order on Thursday. "Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.”

Middlebrooks, nominated by Bill Clinton in 1997, accused Trump of a “pattern of abuse of the courts" for filing frivolous lawsuits for political purposes, which he said "undermines the rule of law" and “amounts to obstruction of justice.”

“Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose," Middlebrooks wrote.

Middlebrooks in September dismissed the suit Trump had filed against Clinton, former top FBI officials and the Democratic Party, rejecting the former president’s claims that they and others conspired to sink his winning presidential campaign by alleging ties to Russia.

The lawsuit had named as defendants Clinton and some of her top advisers, as well as former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials involved in the investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the election.

He said then the suit contained “glaring structural deficiencies” and that many of the “characterizations of events are implausible.”