A grand jury in Virginia indicted New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James on Thursday, marking the second Trump foe to face federal prosecution in current weeks.
James was charged with one rely of financial institution fraud and one rely of creating false statements to a monetary establishment. The indictment alleges that James purchased a home in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020 with a mortgage that required her to make use of it as a second residence, however she in the end rented it to a household and used it as an funding property. It accuses her of misrepresenting how the home was used to get a decrease rate of interest.
The indictment says James bought the house for $137,000 and borrowed $109,600 — and by getting extra favorable lending phrases and a bigger vendor credit score, she allegedly saved herself $18,933 over the lifetime of the mortgage.
Lindsey Halligan, the performing U.S. legal professional for the Jap District of Virginia, mentioned in a statement: “Nobody is above the legislation. The fees as alleged on this case symbolize intentional, prison acts and great breaches of the general public’s belief.”
James referred to as the fees “baseless” in a video statement.
“That is nothing greater than a continuation of the president’s determined weaponization of our justice system,” she mentioned.
James’s legal professional, Abbe Lowell, mentioned James “flatly and forcefully denies these fees” and mentioned he’s “deeply involved that this case is pushed by President Trump’s need for revenge.”
James has drawn Mr. Trump’s ire for years. Her workplace sued the president and the Trump Group for fraud in 2022, main a choose to difficulty a nine-figure judgment towards the corporate. Mr. Trump has referred to James as “scum,” “corrupt” and “racist.”
The indictment got here precisely two weeks after a grand jury in the identical Virginia courthouse voted to indict one other Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, on fees of mendacity to Congress. James was indicted by a distinct grand jury than the one which indicted Comey, based on a supply acquainted with the matter.
Final month, Mr. Trump publicly urged Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi to look into Comey, James and a 3rd longtime Trump antagonist, Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.
In Could, CBS News reported that the Justice Division had launched a prison probe into James round alleged mortgage fraud. Three months later, the Justice Division expanded its investigation into James for her workplace’s dealing with of its Trump Group probe.
The mortgage fraud investigation started after William Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Company, wrote a letter to Bondi alleging that James “has, in a number of cases, falsified financial institution paperwork and property information to amass authorities backed help and loans and extra favorable mortgage phrases.”
Pulte claimed James acquired offers on mortgage phrases by falsifying info associated to a number of completely different properties over the course of many years — not together with the 2020 buy that led to Thursday’s fees. Pulte’s allegations embrace itemizing one other residence in Norfolk, Virginia, as her “principal residence” regardless of residing and dealing in New York, shopping for a five-family property in Brooklyn with a mortgage that’s solely obtainable for houses with 4 models or much less, and an accusation that in 1983, James’ father signed mortgage paperwork stating they had been husband and spouse.
James denied the allegations on the time, calling them “baseless.”
In April, Lowell — an legal professional for James whose agency often represents purchasers that it believes have been unfairly focused by the Trump administration — despatched a letter to the Division of Justice refuting the allegations specified by Pulte’s letter.
Lowell referred to as the allegations “long-disproven” and referred to the investigation as “the most recent act of improper political retribution — this time directed at Ms. James — publicly instigated and endorsed by President Trump.”
DOJ fees one other longtime Trump foe
Mr. Trump has sparred with James since she was elected New York legal professional common in 2018 and started pursuing circumstances towards the president, his companies and his administration.
Within the civil lawsuit towards Mr. Trump and the Trump Group, James’ workplace accused the corporate of fraudulently inflating the worth of its actual property property to achieve extra favorable lending phrases in what she referred to as “the artwork of the steal,” a play on the identify of Mr. Trump’s e book, “The Artwork of the Deal.” The president denied wrongdoing, and he and his attorneys lashed out at James, characterizing the case as politically motivated.
After a trial that delved deeply into Mr. Trump’s business empire, a choose ordered the president and his firm to pay a judgment in extra of $350 million — which ballooned to over a half-billion dollars together with curiosity. Judges on New York’s appellate courtroom later tossed out the judgment over the summer season, calling it “extreme.”
Since returning to workplace, Mr. Trump has taken the unprecedented step of encouraging the Justice Division to look into individuals who he believes wronged him throughout his first time period or his 4 years out of workplace — together with Comey and James.
The strikes have been met with some inner backlash. The performing U.S. Legal professional for the Jap District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, resigned last month, amid concern from prosecutors within the workplace that the Trump administration might fireplace him for failing to prosecute James.
Siebert was replaced as interim U.S. legal professional by Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump legal professional and White Home aide. Simply days after she was sworn in, the workplace requested a grand jury to indict Comey for allegedly mendacity throughout a Senate listening to 5 years in the past.
In the meantime, Trump-aligned legal professional Ed Martin — who leads the Justice Division’s new Weaponization Working Group — pressed James to resign as state legal professional common in an August letter obtained by the Related Press.
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