A grand jury has indicted New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James after Donald Trump demanded federal prosecutors criminally charge his longtime foe as part of a retribution campaign against his perceived political enemies.
The two-count indictment accuses James of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a loan for a property she purchased in 2020.
“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system,” James said in a statement Thursday.
“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost,” she added. “The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties.”
Trump nominated his personal attorney Lindsey Halligan to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last month after he boasted of “firing” the district’s top prosecutor who resisted pressure from the administration to prosecute James and former FBI director James Comey.
Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience, presented a case against Comey days later, and she personally delivered evidence against James to a grand jury Thursday.
James is tentatively scheduled to appear in court to formally face charges on October 24.
“No one is above the law. The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust,” Halligan said in a statement. “The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice — now filled with loyalists and attorneys to dominate agencies that the president claims were weaponized against him — are also targeting other prominent Democratic officials as well as progressive fundraising groups and an array of ideological opponents the administration alleges are tied to acts of terrorism.
Last month, in a post on Truth Social that was intended to be a private message to Bondi, the president complained that “nothing is being done” against James, Comey, and Senator Adam Schiff, who are “all guilty as hell,” he said.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
James has long been a target of the president, whose sprawling business empire was the subject of a years-long investigation and blockbuster judgment from a New York judge that found Trump and his associates illegally enriched themselves by defrauding banks and investors as part of a decade-long scheme to secure favorable financing terms for some of his brand-building properties.
In August, a state appeals court determined that the crushing financial verdict from New York Justice Arthur Engoron — which has ballooned to more than $515m, with growing interest — was “excessive.”
But the court upheld Engoron’s findings that the president and his business partners committed brazen fraud — falling short of the vindication that the president sought through the courts to save him.
Bill Pulte, the chair of the Federal Housing Finance Authority, accused James of falsifying documents and property records relating to homes she owns in New York, New Jersey and Virginia to obtain lower mortgage rates — ironically nearly the exact same thing a judge determined Trump and his business associates did with multiple properties.
The Justice Department then opened an investigation against James based on the allegations.
According to Thursday’s indictment, James sought to defraud OVM Financial and First Savings Bank by listing a home she purchased in Virginia as a primary residence in an effort to obtain favorable financing terms.
Her legal team reportedly showed evidence that the home was intended for her niece and that there was no intention to improperly receive better terms.
The case was effectively frozen after career prosecutors reportedly told officials that they did not possess sufficient evidence to secure a conviction.
That blockage appeared to frustrate the president, who then turned to Truth Social last month to call on “Pam” to bring a case without “delay” — hours before nominating Halligan as the top prosecutor in Alexandria.
The bar for securing an indictment from a grand jury is far lower than securing a unanimous conviction at trial, though prosecutors are generally instructed to only bring a case they believe is supported by evidence to obtain a conviction.
In her statement, James ripped Trump’s decision to nominate “blindly loyal” Halligan as “antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country.”
“This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice,” she added.
“I am a proud woman of faith, and I know that faith and fear cannot share the same space,” she added. “And so today I am not fearful, I am fearless, and as my faith teaches me, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights. And I will continue to do my job.”
