- Trump released a statement ranting about
New York 's criminal investigations into his company. - The 909-word statement is the longest Trump has released since he left office in January.
- He accused the New York attorney general and Manhattan DA's office of political persecution.
Former President
The 909-word statement came after the state attorney general's office told CNN that it was joining the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in its criminal investigation into the company.
"We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature," Fabien Levy, a spokesman for New York Attorney General Tish James, told CNN. "We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan D.A. We have no additional comment at this time."
Trump in his statement said he'd learned "through leaks in the mainstream media" that the "Democrat New York Attorney General has 'informed' my organization that their 'investigation' is no longer just a civil matter but also potentially a 'criminal' investigation working with the Manhattan District Attorney's office."
He went on to describe James as someone who "literally campaigned on prosecuting Donald Trump before she even knew anything about me" and pointed to several statements she made criticizing his administration and business dealings while she ran for office.
"The Attorney General made each of these statements, not after having had an opportunity to actually look at the facts, but BEFORE she was even elected, BEFORE she had even seen a shred of evidence," he said. "This is something that happens in failed third world countries, not the United States."
"If you can run for a prosecutor's office pledging to take out your enemies, and be elected to that job by partisan voters who wish to enact political retribution, then we are no longer a free constitutional democracy," Trump, who frequently called for the prosecution and imprisonment of his political opponents while in office, added.
The former president also criticized his former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen as a "lying, discredited low life" and accused the Manhattan District Attorney's Office of using Cohen's congressional testimony as the basis for its criminal investigation into the Trump Organization.
He also falsely suggested that Cohen was serving a three-year prison sentence for "lying and other events unrelated to me." In fact, he's serving time for multiple felonies, including wire fraud, tax evasion, and campaign-finance violations that Cohen said he carried out at Trump's direction.
The former president also accused New York of ignoring issues it has no control over, like the influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border, and of trying to destroy "the political fortunes of President Donald J. Trump and the almost 75 million people who voted for him."
"After prosecutorial efforts the likes of which nobody has ever seen before, they failed to stop me in Washington, so they turned it over to New York to do their dirty work," Trump said, likely referring to the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and related criminal inquiries.
He added: "If these prosecutors focused on real issues, crime would be obliterated, and New York would be great and free again!"
The Manhattan DA is examining whether the Trump Organization broke state laws when it facilitated an illegal hush-money payment to the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, who alleges that she had an affair with Trump in 2006. According to previous court filings, Manhattan prosecutors suspect the sprawling real-estate company may have committed tax and bank fraud while organizing the payments, which Cohen admitted to making to Daniels at Trump's direction.
Earlier this year, state investigators scored a major victory when the Supreme Court cleared the way for them to obtain eight years of Trump's closely held tax returns. Legal experts also said in March that based on the office's aggressive investigative steps and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s upcoming retirement, the inquiry may be nearing its final stages.
Trumpworld, meanwhile, views the New York investigations, as well as an investigation in the Fulton County District Attorney's Office in Georgia, as far more dangerous than any prosecution from the Justice Department related to the January 6 Capitol riot would be.
Last week, Politico reported that officials in Florida, where Trump resides, were putting together "contingency plans" in case he faces a criminal indictment from New York.
Palm Beach County's top prosecutor told CNN this week that Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a staunch Trump loyalist, had no power to stop the former president from being extradited to New York if he was charged with a crime.