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GOP candidate for AG says he might act against Trump

Matt Ryan, New York Now

The Republican candidate for attorney general in New York, Keith Wofford, said if he wins, he’d go after the head of his party, President Donald Trump, and his policies — but only if there’s a good reason.

The current attorney general, Barbara Underwood, has dozens of lawsuits on file against Trump, ranging from an investigation of the Trump Foundation to the administration’s environmental policies.

The Democratic candidate for attorney general, New York City Public Advocate Tish James, has said she’d continue those actions.

Wofford said he’d examine each of the cases, but he said some of the actions seem purely “partisan” and “political.” Wofford said he would pursue legal action against Trump’s secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, for including questions about  citizenship in the new census questionnaire.

“The point of the census is to count people,” Wofford said in an interview with public radio and TV. “Anything you do to undermine the accuracy of the census is something that we should stay away from.” 

And he said he would look into allegations published recently in the New York Times that Trump and his family engaged in systematic tax fraud.

“You absolutely have to investigate it,” Wofford said. “The allegation has to be taken seriously, because it’s hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Wofford said he remains a Trump supporter, even though he might not always agree with everything the president does.

Karen DeWitt is Capitol Bureau chief for the New York Public News Network, composed of a dozen newsrooms across the state. She has covered state government and politics for the network since 1990.