New York’s attorney general Letitia James Photographer: Jeenah Moon\/Bloomberg <\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) — New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia, making her the second of President Donald Trump\u2019s perceived political enemies to be criminally charged in two weeks.<\/p>\n
James was charged with one count of alleged bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. The indictment made public on Thursday follows allegations from Trump administration officials that James engaged in mortgage fraud.<\/p>\n
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Letitia James, New York\u2019s attorney general, during a news conference in New York, in 2024.Photographer: Jeenah Moon\/Bloomberg <\/p>\n
\u201cThese charges are baseless, and the president\u2019s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost,\u201d James said in a statement. \u201cHe is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General.\u201d<\/p>\n
James, who won a civil case against Trump two years before he won a second term as president, has denied committing mortgage fraud. Her attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement James would \u201cfight these charges in every process allowed in the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loan Applications<\/p>\n
The Justice Department\u2019s probe into James stemmed from claims by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte that she may have committed mortgage fraud based on the residence status she listed on loan applications.<\/p>\n
The indictment alleges that to get favorable mortgage terms James falsely represented that a Norfolk, Virginia property she bought in 2020 would be used as a secondary residence. Prosecutors claim that James actually used it as an investment property that she rented to a family, and didn\u2019t intend to occupy it. <\/p>\n
Trump had called for legal action against James in a message to Attorney General Pam Bondi on social media last month. \u201cWe can\u2019t delay any longer, it\u2019s killing our reputation and credibility,\u201d Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. \u201cJUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
James had campaigned on promises to investigate Trump. In 2022, her office sued Trump and his real estate company, alleging he reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in \u201cillegal profit\u201d by inflating the value of assets, including his Mar-a-Lago estate and Trump Tower penthouse. The complaint alleged Trump and his two eldest sons carried out the scheme for years so he could get better loan terms from Deutsche Bank AG and other lenders.<\/p>\n
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James won after a trial in which Trump took the witness stand and denied wrongdoing. A judge set the penalty at $464 million. But a New York appeals court in August vacated the fine, ruling it was unconstitutionally \u201cexcessive,\u201d while upholding the judge\u2019s finding that Trump and his company were liable for fraud. Both sides have appealed, escalating the case to the state\u2019s highest court.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s defense team blasted James during the trial, saying the case was politically motivated. The judge who oversaw the case declined to toss it out on those grounds, but a dissenting appeals court judge who disagreed with the liability verdict agreed with Trump.<\/p>\n
The White House didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
\u2018Criminal Acts\u2019<\/p>\n
The US Attorney\u2019s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia, now headed by Lindsey Halligan, also recently secured a grand jury indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, whose prosecution the president also publicly called for. Comey has said he\u2019s innocent and is fighting the charges in court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public\u2019s trust,\u201d Halligan said in a statement. The charges carry potential penalties of as much as 30 years in prison per count and a $1 million fine on each count, as well as forfeiture, according to the statement.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 initial appearance in US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, is set for Oct. 24.<\/p>\n
The push by some Trump officials to pursue charges against James had appeared to be stalled until recently. Erik Siebert, who had been leading the Virginia US attorney\u2019s office, resigned his post last month amid pressure. Siebert had determined there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to support charges against James, Bloomberg News had reported.<\/p>\n
However, Trump then installed Halligan as interim US attorney. Previously, Halligan was a senior aide at the White House and was tasked with leading an initiative to review exhibits at the Smithsonian\u2019s museums to ensure that they reflect American \u201cexcellence\u201d as laid out in an executive order.<\/p>\n
Halligan also represented Trump against charges of mishandling classified documents after his first term. She previously was an insurance lawyer in Florida and graduated from the University of Miami School of Law.<\/p>\n
The charges against James \u2014 coming on the heels of Comey\u2019s arraignment this week \u2014 immediately fueled allegations that prosecutors were improperly using the office to punish the president\u2019s perceived enemies.<\/p>\n
New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer accused Trump of using the Justice Department \u201cas his personal attack dog\u201d and going after James for pursuing charges against the president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t justice,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Patricia Hurtado and Zoe Tillman.<\/p>\n
(Updates with potential penalty details in 13th paragraph. An earlier version corrected the scope of a charge.)<\/p>\n
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\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York’s attorney general Letitia James Photographer: Jeenah Moon\/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — New York Attorney General Letitia James was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":291022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,3638,69,49023,15428,24980,133610,93588,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-291021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bloomberg","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-james-comey","12":"tag-justice-department","13":"tag-letitia-james","14":"tag-lindsey-halligan","15":"tag-mortgage-fraud","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115347947740805291","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}