New York Attorney General Letitia James is the latest political opponent of President Donald Trump facing charges from the Department of Justice.
The president had personally pushed for the prosecution of James, who led a successful civil fraud case against Trump in New York. Trump and his sons were slapped with hundreds of millions of dollars in fines when a judge found that they had artificially inflated Trump’s net worth in business negotiations. Those steep damages have since been reduced on appeal, but the president has appeared determined to punish James for winning the case.
James was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday on charges of bank fraud and false statements to a financial institution. The charges stem from a mortgage application for a home in Virginia. Prosecutors allege that James misled a mortgage lender by claiming the home would be her primary residence. James’ attorneys said that a mismarked form was a mistake, providing the Justice Department with emails to her loan provider in which she stated plainly that the home “would not be her primary residence.”
Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert resigned last month under pressure from Trump to prosecute James and former FBI Director James Comey. Trump’s former personal attorney, Lindsey Halligan, took over the role and has since brought cases against both Comey and James. Halligan, who had never worked as a prosecutor before taking on her new role, personally made the case to the grand jury on Thursday.
In a statement shared with the Associated Press, James called the charges “baseless” and said they were evidence of “the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”
“The president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties,” she shared.
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