New York Attorney General Lettitia James has been indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Virginia.
The official was charged with one count of mortgage fraud after Trump publicly asked his appointees at the Justice Department to file charges against her.
According to reports, Attorney General Pam Bondi has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of mortgage fraud against the New York attorney general, who successfully brought a civil fraud case against Donald Trump before he regained the presidency.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte had referred the case to the Justice Department alleging that James had made false statements on mortgage loan applications.
However, the case stalled last month because federal agents and prosecutors did not believe they had the evidence needed to obtain a conviction, two senior federal officials said.
Trump then appointed one of his personal lawyers, Lindsey Halligan, as acting federal attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, although she lacks experience in that field.
Trump has repeatedly brought charges against his political enemies, including James and former FBI Director James Comey, who was charged in September with lying to Congress and obstructing congressional proceedings. Halligan also presented the case against Comey to a federal grand jury, doing so alone, breaking with Department of Justice rules, and convincing the majority of the grand jury that there was probable cause to indict Comey on two of the three charges she brought.
Reactions
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said: “New Yorkers know [Letitia James] for his integrity, his independence and his tireless fight for justice. “What we are witnessing today is nothing less than the use of the Department of Justice as a weapon to punish those who hold the powerful accountable.”
Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres called the accusation an “outrageous and flagrant” abuse of power. “It is the latest salvo in Donald Trump’s relentless war on American democracy. Instead of addressing the grocery and utility bills burdening American families, Donald Trump remains pathologically preoccupied with his list of personal enemies. The persecution of political rivals has become the sole obsession of his failed presidency.”
Jumaane Williams, the city’s public defender, who was elected after James resigned from that position to be sworn in as attorney general, said his accusation “should alarm and outrage every New Yorker, every American.”
“Donald Trump has been clear in his goals: to use the federal government as a weapon against people brave enough to stand up to him. Now he has made an excuse to go after the highest-ranking black woman in the state, where he was convicted of 34 felonies and civil fraud.”
