Donald Trump's legal team has filed a letter with the New York Supreme Court arguing that Attorney General Letitia James failed to comply with a court order requiring her to detail her office's evidence preservation practices, in the latest twist in the long-running civil fraud case against him. The demand centres on communications with Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and a key prosecution witness, after Cohen wrote in a Substack article that he had felt pressured by James's office to provide testimony aimed at securing a conviction against Trump.

The case dates back to 2022, when James accused Trump of habitually inflating his property valuations. He was initially ordered to pay $355 million plus interest and barred from seeking loans from New York banks for three years, though an appeals court later vacated the financial penalties, which James is now seeking to reinstate. Trump's lawyers have separately argued the case should be dismissed entirely, citing five alleged flaws, including that James lacked authority to bring it and that the supposed "victims" were sophisticated banks that profited from the deals.