A federal grand jury in Virginia on Thursday indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on charges accusing her of bank fraud and lying to a financial institution to secure more favorable mortgage terms on a Norfolk, Va., property in 2023. File Photo by Derek French/UPI | License Photo
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on charges that accuse her of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
A grand jury in the U.S.District Court of Eastern Virginia indicted James on the criminal charges after the Justice Department accused her of falsely claiming a Norfolk, Va., property that she bought in 2023 would be her primary residence to obtain more favorable mortgage terms.
The charges arose after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte earlier wrote Attorney General Pam Bondi regarding the matter and suggested James committed fraud, CBS News reported.
U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan presented evidence to the grand jury on Thursday, which resulted in the indictment against James, according to ABC News.
James afterward accused the Trump administration of using the DOJ to punish her.
“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system,” James said in a prepared statement.
“He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York state attorney general.”
James said the charges against her are “baseless” and said the president’s public comments affirm “that his only goal is political retribution at any cost.”
She called the matter a “grave violation of our constitutional order” and said Republican and Democratic Party leaders should “speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice.”
While James called the indictments against her a “perversion” of justice, she previously campaigned for her current office partly on charging Trump with alleged crimes during his first term in the White House.
James in 2018 successfully ran to become New York’s attorney general and while campaigning said she would investigate and bring charges against Trump.
In a 2022 civil lawsuit, James accused the president and the Trump Organization of lying about property values to secure a loan that was repaid in full.
A New York judge imposed a $350 million fine, plus interest, and barred Trump from doing business in New York for three years after the court found him guilty.
The president appealed the financial penalty, which totaled nearly $500 million when interest was added, and a New York appellate court in August threw out the fine.
James is appealing the appellate court’s ruling.
