ALEXANDRIA, Va. \u2014 A federal grand jury in Virginia refused to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday on allegations of \u200bmortgage fraud for the second time since a judge dismissed charges against her last month, according to sources familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
The decision marks the latest rebuke to the Justice Department under President Donald Trump as it pursues perceived political enemies of \u2060the Republican president.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie last month dismissed<\/a> a mortgage-related criminal case against James, an elected Democrat, finding the prosecutor who brought it, Trump ally Lindsey Halligan, was \u200cunlawfully appointed as interim U.S. attorney for Virginia’s Eastern District. Thursday’s decision marks the second time a grand jury has rejected prosecutors’ \u2060attempts to revive the case.<\/p>\n Prosecutors presented evidence before a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday, a week after a panel based in Norfolk, \u200cVirginia, also refused<\/a> to sign off \u200don a new indictment, sources said. The Justice Department could continue its attempts to seek charges.<\/p>\n A lawyer for James, \u2060Abbe Lowell, said the grand jury’s decision “makes even clearer that this case should never \u2060have seen the light of day.”<\/p>\n “This case already has been a stain on this Department’s reputation and raises troubling questions about its integrity. Any further attempt to revive these discredited charges would be a mockery of our system of justice,” Lowell said in a statement.<\/p>\n A justice department spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n Prosecutors rarely struggle to obtain indictments from grand juries, given that the government alone presents evidence and must only show probable cause that a crime was committed, a lower legal bar than for securing a conviction at trial. But the Justice Department’s struggle to revive the case appears to show deep skepticism among grand \u200djurors about a case Trump called for as he pressured the department to move against prominent critics and officials who have investigated him.<\/p>\n Currie gave the Justice Department an opportunity<\/a> to seek a new indictment with a different prosecutor in charge.<\/p>\n