Donald Trump has grounds to sue New York Attorney General Letitia James for violating the former president's civil rights, according to a Fox News contributor.
Deroy Murdock, a political commentator and regular guest on the conservative news channel, made the remark after a New York appeals court agreed to delay the collection of Trump's $454 million civil fraud penalty stemming from James' lawsuit. The former president was told to pay a bond of $175 million within 10 days instead while he appeals the court's decision.
In February, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump had filed fraudulent financial statements for years that inflated the value of his properties and assets to secure favorable terms from lenders. The financial guarantee payment delay granted to Trump on Monday meant James' office could not start the process of seizing his properties.
Murdock repeated suggestions he made in an article in The American Spectator that Trump should sue James over comments she made in 2018 while running for New York state attorney general. She had said she intended to stand up to the "too male, too pale, too stale" Trump administration.
"Now, you could talk about stale ideas, that's fine, but too male and too pale, that constitutes, basically, sex and race discrimination. So I think what President Trump ought to do is sue her on the basis of the 1964 Civil Rights Act," Murdock told Fox News on Tuesday.
"Her office gets federal money for various subsidies for law enforcement activity. So federal money is flowing into her office and if she is engaged in that kind of sexual and racial discrimination and that kind of language, I think she's wide open to exposure on the 1964 Civil Rights Act,"Murdock said.
"Donald J. Trump should sue Letitia James on the basis of Civil Rights."
Trump has also frequently accused James, who is Black, of conducting a "racist" and politically motivated investigation into him.
Writing in The American Spectator, Murdock suggested the former president should sue James as "what the hell does Trump have to lose?"
"He immediately should file a federal complaint and demand justice under America's keystone civil-rights law. To see a white male multi-billionaire sue a [Black] female attorney general to secure his civil rights would be the ultimate man-bites-dog story," Murdock wrote.
"For this extraordinary spectacle, America owes a hearty thank you to New York state's leading despot, Attorney General Letitia James."
James' office and Trump's legal team have been contacted for comment via email.
Murdock's remarks came soon after Trump criticized Fox News for its coverage of the New York civil fraud case.
"Don't Like the way FoxNews is reporting the Letitia James Election Interference Scam," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday on the eve of his original deadline to pay the cash bond to stop James from seizing his assets.
"They don't want to discuss how ridiculous the Corrupt Judge's fine of 450 Million Dollars is. It should be $ZERO.
"The only fraud was the valuation of Mar-a-Lago at $18,000,000 by the Crooked Judge in order to help his already fully debunked narrative. They should pay me damages for what they have done, and ultimately will," he wrote.
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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