New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime enemy of President Donald Trump, has been indicted on bank fraud charges, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter, as the administration seeks to pursue investigations into Trump and use government power against those who publicly resisted his policies.
Reuters and the Associated Press reported the situation on Thursday.
James was indicted on one count in the Eastern District of Virginia following a mortgage fraud investigation, The Associated Press reported, citing anonymous sources. The James case remained sealed Thursday, making it impossible to assess what evidence prosecutors have.
James said in a statement that the charges are “baseless.” He added, “This is nothing but a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement to do his bidding, all while I was performing my duties as New York’s attorney general.”
Trump, a Republican who has been campaigning for re-election since the end of his first term in the White House in 2021 after facing a number of legal challenges and vowing revenge, has repeatedly attacked James, a Democrat, as a partisan enemy on social media and at political rallies.
James’ indictment comes after a grand jury in Virginia indicted former FBI Director James Comey on September 25 on charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation. Mr. Comey insisted he was innocent. President Trump has regularly criticized Comey’s handling of the FBI investigation detailing contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016.
James is one of several Democratic state attorneys general who have filed lawsuits to block the Trump administration’s actions. She is best known for filing a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his family’s real estate company in 2022. In that case, a judge found that Trump fraudulently inflated his net worth to defraud lenders and fined him $454.2 million.
In August, the New York State Court of Appeals threw out the fine, which had grown to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a trial judge’s finding that Trump was responsible for the fraud. Both Trump and James’ offices have appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing. He accused Mr. James’s office of filing the case against him for political reasons.
In May, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into allegations of mortgage fraud against James.
The investigation began after William Pulte, Trump’s appointee to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleging that James “falsified records” to obtain favorable loans for homes he purchased in Virginia and Brooklyn.
James’ lawyer Abby Rowell said at the time that the accusations were “baseless and long discredited.”
Following Mr. Prut’s inquiry, the Justice Department also opened a mortgage fraud investigation into Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, who led the House investigation that led to Mr. Trump’s impeachment in 2019, and Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve board member appointed by Democratic former US President Joe Biden.
Neither Mr. Schiff nor Mr. Cook have been charged with any crime and have denied any wrongdoing.
“Weaponization of the judicial system”
The Justice Department convened a grand jury in August and subpoenaed James’ office to produce documents related to this case and another lawsuit she filed against the National Rifle Association (NRA), a person familiar with the investigation told Reuters at the time.
In the NRA case, jurors found former CEO Wayne LaPierre and others responsible for years of financial failure, but the judge decided not to impose an outside monitor on the gun rights group.
Federal prosecutors investigating Ms. James are looking into whether her case deprived Mr. Trump and others of their civil rights, the people said.
Although legal decisions are often appealed, it is highly unusual for government lawyers to face criminal investigations in cases they have brought, especially those that go to trial and are upheld in court.
Lowell called the civil rights investigation “the most blatant and desperate example of the current administration carrying out the president’s campaign of political retribution.”
“The weaponization of the judicial system should be disturbing to all Americans, and we strongly support the success of this lawsuit,” James’ office said in a statement on Aug. 8.
