NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge is rejecting a bid by President Donald Trump’s lawyers to dismiss a state lawsuit alleging he ran his charitable foundation without regard for the law.
In a ruling posted Friday, State Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla rebuffed the Trump team’s contention that the lawsuit was politically motivated.
Scarpulla said that given the seriousness of the allegations, there’s no basis for finding that “animus and bias were the sole motivating factors” for New York state Attorney General Barbara Underwood’s lawsuit.
Underwood alleges the Trump Foundation became a wing of Trump’s campaign. She wants him barred for 10 years from running any charities.
Scarpulla says she’ll be forced to drop Trump from the lawsuit if a state appeals court rules in an unrelated case that a sitting president can’t be sued in state court.
