Eric Trump says the Trump Organization has 'assembled the best legal, ethical minds' to thwart the NY attorney general's '3rd rate' investigation

• Eric Trump grew animated during a Fox News appearance Monday night.
• He sounded off on New York Attorney General Tish James investigating the Trump Organization.

Eric Trump came in hot during an appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News show on Monday night.

Growing visibly irritated and at times yelling, the Trump Organization's executive vice president vowed that the family business will prevail over New York Attorney General Tish James's investigation into potential fraud. The president's son called the investigation unconstitutional, without providing any evidence to support that claim.

James, who withdrew her bid from the 2022 New York governor's race to run for reelection in her current post, has been targeting Trump's business practices along for several years, as has the the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

—Acyn (@Acyn) January 11, 2022

"Literally you have the entire district attorney's office, the entire attorney general's office trying to look into every aspect of my father's life to see if they can find or manufacture a comma that was out of place to try and get him because they know he's been the most influential politician in, frankly, probably the last 100 years in this country, and they know they can't stop him in Washington, DC, so they have to attack him at home, and they have to attack his family, and it's disgusting," Trump said.

"And it's going to stop," he continued, "it's going to stop because, frankly, we've assembled the best legal, ethical minds and we're going to sue her for this abuse of power."

Alina Habba, an attorney for the Trump Organization, responded to Insider's request for comment on how the investigation is unconstitutional by emailing a preliminary injunction filed in the Northern District of New York against Attorney General James. The filing cited an equal protection claim and accused James of being politically motivated.

"By filing this preliminary injunction, we will hold Ms. James accountable for her rampant misconduct by asking the Court to stay this pretextual investigation," Habba said in a statement. "Ms. James will no longer be permitted to use her office to violate our client's constitutional rights."

Habba did not outline any specific constitutional violation, instead describing James's investigation as "laced with venom and viciousness and was never connected to any legitimate law enforcement interests."

Unlike Trump's legal defenses during both of his impeachments and in other legal entanglements, the preliminary injunction does not rely on Article II protections — more commonly referred to as "executive privilege" — and instead focuses more heavily on painting James as holding a personal animus toward the former president.

Former President Donald Trump has struggled to maintain a disciplined legal team in recent years, landing in embarrassing situations, including Rudy Giuliani's Four Seasons Landscaping press conference and failing to win any of the 40-plus lawsuits his campaign filed to dispute the 2020 election results.

James' office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Tuesday, but has previously defended her legal actions against both the Trump administration and Trump Organization when criticized by the former president or members of his family.

"My office remains committed to enforcing the law and holding accountable those who abuse their authority — no matter how powerful," James said in a November statement to Insider.

Going beyond calling the New York civil suit unconstitutional, Trump compared the investigation to authoritarian regimes in Russia and Venezuela.

"This is what you'd expect from Russia," he said. "This is what you'd expect from Venezuela. This is third-rate stuff."