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NY AG James Charged in Fraud Case 10/10 06:20
New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted Thursday in a mortgage
fraud case that President Donald Trump urged his Justice Department to bring
after vowing retribution against some of his biggest political enemies.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted
Thursday in a mortgage fraud case that President Donald Trump urged his Justice
Department to bring after vowing retribution against some of his biggest
political enemies.
James, a Democrat who infuriated Trump after his first term with a lawsuit
alleging that he built his business empire on lies about his wealth, was
charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution
in connection with a home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020.
The top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, a former
Trump aide, personally presented the case to the grand jury weeks after she was
thrust into the role amid the administration's pressure to deliver charges.
The indictment, two weeks after a separate criminal case charging former FBI
Director James Comey with lying to Congress, is the latest indication of the
Trump administration's norm-busting determination to use the law enforcement
powers of the Justice Department to pursue the president's political foes and
public figures who once investigated him.
In a lengthy statement, James decried the indictment as "nothing more than a
continuation of the president's desperate weaponization of our justice system."
"These charges are baseless, and the president's own public statements make
clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president's
actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp
criticism from members of both parties," she added.
Both the Comey and James cases followed a strikingly unconventional path
toward indictment. The Trump administration last month pushed out Erik Siebert,
the veteran prosecutor who had overseen both investigations for months and had
resisted pressure to file charges, and replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, a
White House aide who has worked as lawyer for Trump but had never previously
served as a federal prosecutor.
Halligan presented the James case to the grand jury herself, as she did in
the case against Comey, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated
Press. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on
the condition of anonymity.
James called the decision to fire Siebert and replace him with a prosecutor
who is "blindly loyal" to the president "antithetical to the bedrock principles
of our country," and she said she stood by her investigation of Trump and his
company as having been "based on the facts and evidence -- not politics."
Abbe Lowell, James' lawyer and a prominent attorney representing multiple
Trump targets, said James "flatly and forcefully denies these charges." James
is scheduled to make an initial appearance in the federal court in Norfolk,
Virginia, on Oct. 24.
"We are deeply concerned that this case is driven by President Trump's
desire for revenge," Lowell said in a statement. "When a President can publicly
direct charges to be filed against someone -- when it was reported that career
attorneys concluded none were warranted -- it marks a serious attack on the
rule of law. We will fight these charges in every process allowed in the law."
James, 66, has been attorney general since 2019 after becoming the first
Black woman to be elected to statewide office in New York. She cruised to
reelection in 2022 after abandoning a short-lived run for governor.
The indictment pertains to James' purchase of a modest house in Norfolk,
where she has family. During the sale, she signed a standard document called a
"second home rider" in which she agreed to keep the property primarily for her
"personal use and enjoyment for at least one year," unless the lender agreed
otherwise.
Rather than using the home as a second residence, the indictment alleges,
James rented it out to a family of three. According to the indictment, the
misrepresentation allowed James to obtain favorable loan terms not available
for investment properties.
In a post on X shortly after the indictment was handed up, Attorney General
Pam Bondi wrote, "One tier of justice for all Americans."
"No one is above the law," Halligan, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern
District of Virginia, said in a statement. "The charges as alleged in this case
represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public's
trust. The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue
following them to ensure that justice is served."
Trump has been advocating charging James for months, posting on social media
without citing any evidence that she's "guilty as hell" and telling reporters
at the White House, "It looks to me like she's really guilty of something, but
I really don't know."
The Justice Department has also been investigating mortgage-related
allegations against Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, using the probe to
demand her ouster, and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., whose lawyer called the
allegations against him "transparently false, stale, and long debunked."
But James is a particularly personal target. As attorney general, she sued
the Republican president and his administration dozens of times. Last year, she
won a staggering judgment against Trump and his companies in a lawsuit alleging
he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on
financial statements.
An appeals court overturned the fine, which had ballooned to more than $500
million with interest, but upheld a lower court's finding that Trump had
committed fraud.
The indictment comes a day after Comey made his first court appearance in
his case, accusing him of lying to Congress in 2020. Comey's lawyer told the
judge that the defense plans to push to have the case dismissed ahead of trial,
arguing that it is a vindictive prosecution brought at the direction of the
president.
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