A federal grand jury indicted Letitia James, the New York attorney general, for bank fraud on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Lindsey Halligan, the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, personally presented the case to the grand jury on Thursday, the person said. US attorneys do not typically present to a grand jury.
Representatives for James did not immediately return a request for comment.
Halligan was installed in the role last month after Donald Trump became frustrated with the pace of investigations against his rivals.
The move is the president’s latest effort to weaponize the Department of Justice to punish political rivals. It comes two weeks after Halligan secured charges against James Comey, the former FBI director. Career prosecutors prepared a memo in that case outlining why charges were not warranted. Comey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
The facts of the charges were not immediately clear. A grand jury empaneled earlier this year had been investigating allegations that James may have committed fraud when she helped her niece buy a home in Virginia.
On a document that was part of that transaction, there was a box checked indicating James intended to use it as her primary residence, which would make better mortgage rates available. But in other documents and emails with her mortgage broker, James clearly indicated she did not intend to use the home as her primary residence.
A career prosecutor in the eastern district of Virginia, Elizabeth Yusi, had determined there wasn’t probable cause to file mortgage fraud charges against James and had been preparing to present her thinking to Halligan.
James has attracted Trump’s ire after she led a civil fraud case against the president and his business that resulted in a $500m fine (the fine was recently overturned by an appellate court).
There has been considerable turmoil in the US attorneys office for the eastern district of Virginia in recent weeks. Erik Siebert, Halligan’s predecessor, was removed from his post for failing to bring charges against Comey and James. Maya Song, one of his top deputies, was also fired. A third prosecutor, Michael Ben’Ary, who was not involved in the Comey case was also fired after being targeted by Trump allies online.
William Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a staunch Trump ally, has made criminal referrals on mortgage issues against several Trump rivals, including James, California senator Adam Schiff, and the Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook.