NORFOLK, Va. — It looks like any other house in the city’s Fairmount Park neighborhood: Plants in the front yard. A front porch decoration announcing “Hello fall.” Toys on the porch. A satellite dish.

But the two-story home on a residential street near Lafayette Boulevard is central to a mortgage fraud case the Justice Department brought at President Donald Trump’s urging against a prosecutor who sued him dozens of times.

On Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage fraud charges related to an August 2020 purchase of the Norfolk property.

According to court documents from Trump’s handpicked prosecutor and former Trump aide Lindsey Halligan, James signed a “second home rider” during the sale, agreeing to keep the property primarily for her “personal use and enjoyment for at least one year,” unless the lender agreed otherwise in writing. James purchased the home for $137,000 on Aug. 17, 2020, according to a deed obtained by The Virginian-Pilot.

However, the indictment alleges James leased out the home to a family of three. Claiming the home as a residence allowed James to obtain favorable loan terms, according to the indictment. The indictment says the total savings amount to just under $19,000.

On a chilly Friday morning, the neighborhood was quiet, save for the meows of a stray cat and the occasional passing car. When a reporter approached the house James owns, a man in a pickup truck parked in front with the construction company name on the back said the residence was private property, then shut the car door.

Joe Akins, who has owned a home two doors down for years, said he didn’t know anything about the family renting the property and hadn’t seen James around the neighborhood.

“I stay off to myself,” Akins said.

Akins said the neighborhood was a mix of families and older residents. The area’s Census tract has a median household income of around $61,000, with about 12% of residents living below the poverty line, according to Census data. The median age is about 36.

Another neighbor across the street, who declined to give her name, said she also didn’t know anything about the house, which was built in 1922.

Trump has signaled for months on social media and in talks to reporters that he was seeking to charge James with a crime, according to Associated Press reporting. His administration pushed out the previous U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, who had overseen investigations of James and former FBI director James Comey but did not bring any charges against them.

Siebert was replaced by Halligan, a former Trump aide who also worked as his attorney but has no experience as a federal prosecutor.

Halligan recently secured an indictment against Comey, charging him with lying to Congress after more pressure from Trump.

James’ first court date is Oct. 24 in Norfolk federal court.

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