New York Attorney General Letitia James, A Trump Foe, Is Indicted By Trump’s Doj

Following sustained pressure from President Donald Trump to prosecute his perceived political enemies, a federal grand jury in Virginia on Thursday indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on one count of bank fraud, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The charge against James, a Democrat, comes two weeks after the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, making her the second Trump foe to face what critics call a baldly political prosecution seemingly undertaken to satisfy the demands of a vengeful president.

The details of the charge were not immediately clear, but the Justice Department had been investigating James for alleged mortgage fraud.

James sued Trump in a massive New York civil fraud case that went to trial in 2023 and resulted in an enormous judgment against Trump and his real estate business, though an appeals court later tossed the half-billion dollar financial penalty while retaining the fraud verdict.

Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who was appointed after Trump orchestrated a shakeup of the federal prosecutor’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia, brought the criminal case against James to the grand jury herself, according to the person familiar with the matter, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.

Halligan, a former personal attorney to Trump with no prosecutorial experience until her appointment in late September, also brought the case against Comey after career prosecutors in the office resisted charging him.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment. A spokesperson for James didn’t immediately comment.

Trump last month pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to quickly prosecute his political adversaries, naming James and Comey in a social media post and urging her to appoint Halligan as U.S. attorney to make it happen. Both indictments occurred within three weeks of Halligan’s appointment. Trump also identified Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) as a target.

James has made herself a thorn in Trump’s side ever since she campaigned for New York attorney general in 2018 promising to pursue the man she called an “illegitimate president” and an “embarrassment.”

Trump, in turn, has called James “racist,” as well as “grossly incompetent,” and has made clear that he wants her prosecuted.

“We can’t delay any longer,” Trump posted on Truth Social in a Sept. 20 message directed to “Pam,” meaning Attorney General Pam Bondi. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

Trump and James faced off for three months in a courtroom in late 2023 during a civil fraud case concerning his family business. Early last year, James won the lawsuit when a judge found that Trump and his adult sons had fraudulently inflated Trump’s net worth and the value of his real estate properties to obtain favorable rates from banks and insurers.

The judge, Justice Arthur Engoron, imposed a massive judgment of nearly half a billion dollars, a financial blow that could have been crippling to Trump at the time.

In August, however, an appeals court tossed the judgment, marking a significant victory for the president in a case that he repeatedly derided as a political stunt. But the court declined to overturn the fraud finding.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte wrote a criminal referral to the Department of Justice in April accusing James of claiming a home she owned in Norfolk, Virginia, as a primary residence to get a more favorable loan. James’ lawyer Abbe Lowell has argued the case relied on “cherry-picked” documents while ignoring other documents that exonerate James. The “stale, threadbare allegations,” he wrote in an April letter to the Justice Department, “are the next salvo in President Trump’s revenge tour against Attorney General James.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) jumped to James’ defense following news of the indictment Thursday. New Yorkers know James “for her integrity, her independence, and her relentless fight for justice,” she posted on X. “What we're seeing today is nothing less than the weaponization of the Justice Department to punish those who hold the powerful accountable.”