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Letitia James, NY attorney general, indicted for fraud by DOJ; slams Trump for 'political retribution'

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on

Published in News & Features

NEW YORK — New York Attorney General Tish James was indicted Thursday for bank fraud in Virginia, marking a major escalation in President Trump’s mission to seek retribution against his perceived political enemies, sources told the Daily News.

The case against New York’s top law enforcement official, first reported by MSNBC, was presented to a grand jury by Lindsay Halligan, Trump’s recently appointed interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Halligan recently secured charges against former FBI Director James Comey, a staunch Trump critic, alleging he lied to Congress.

Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience, reportedly secured James’ indictment following an investigation into allegations that she engaged in mortgage fraud while helping her niece finance a home in Norfolk, Va.

In a statement, James said the indictment was part and parcel of “a desperate weaponization of our justice system” and that Trump was forcing the hand of federal law enforcement.

“These charges are baseless, and 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,” the statement read.

“His decision to fire a United States Attorney who refused to bring charges against me — and replace them with someone who is blindly loyal not to the law, but to the president — is antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country,” James’ statement continued. “This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice.”

The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard The Daily News reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

James’ office brought a bombshell case against the Trump Organization that went on trial less than a year before his return to power. It culminated in him and his top executives being found liable on a series of claims alleging they committed wide-scale fraud for years while operating his family-run real estate empire, and with nearly half a billion dollars in fines. A mid-level appeals court recently found the financial penalty was too high.

 

The president has disparaged James incessantly, regularly accusing her on Truth Social of leading a witch hunt against him and goading her from the witness box when he took the stand at his trial, deriding her as a “political hack” as she sat in the front row.

Comey pleaded not guilty to the charges against him on Wednesday. Like James, he has long been a target of the president. Halligan reportedly pursued an indictment against Comey after career prosecutors refused to pursue one.

The charges against Comey and James come weeks after Trump ordered U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his perceived enemies, accidentally posting the directive publicly on his social media site, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,” Trump wrote in the post.

“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

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