Letitia James declared “no one is above the law” when launching her probe into Donald Trump and the Trump Organization back in 2019, and now the New York attorney general may learn that lesson personally.
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte sent a federal criminal referral to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche alleging multiple instances of mortgage fraud. If the case is pursued by the Department of Justice, James would face accusations remarkably similar to the ones she lodged at Trump.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by The Free Press columnist Batya Ungar-Sargon to discuss the bombshell allegations and why they amount to a political “earthquake.”
The Allegations
In a letter sent Tuesday, Pulte said James appears to have “falsified records” to get favorable loan terms on properties in Virginia and New York.
It was in late August 2023 – just weeks before James began her civil trial against the Trump Organization over the value of properties in its portfolio – that Pulte said she allegedly claimed she intended for Virginia to be her “principal residence” despite the fact that it would be illegal.
“Ms. James was the sitting Attorney General of New York and is required by law to have her primary residence in the state of New York — even though her mortgage applications list her intent to have the Norfolk, VA, property as her primary home,” the letter, which was obtained by The New York Post, stated. “It appears Ms. James’ property and mortgage-related misrepresentations may have continued to her recent 2023 Norfolk, VA, property purchase in order to secure a lower interest rate and more favorable loan terms.”
Reporting from White Collar Fraud suggests James granted power of attorney to a relative to sign a document authorizing the purchase of the property, which Megyn said is no different than James signing the forms herself. “Having your power of attorney lie is the same as you lying,” she noted. “There’s absolutely no distinction legally.”
And that was not the only alleged infraction. Pulte also cited a real estate purchase from February 2001, when James bought a five-family dwelling in Brooklyn. According to the letter, she “consistently misrepresented the same property as only having four units in both building permit applications and numerous mortgage documents and applications.” Pulte said doing so could have reduced her mortgage interest rate and monthly payments under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program.
And perhaps the most bizarre allegation has to do with James’ marital history. Pulte attached documents to the criminal referral showing she purchased another property with her father as a co-signer in 1983 and 2000, in which the pair is falsely listed as “husband and wife.” He said “it raises serious concerns about the validity of Ms. James’ representations on mortgage applications.”
‘This Is an Earthquake’
If “one word of this is true,” Megyn said, James will be “in a world of trouble.” During an appearance on Fox News late Tuesday, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said it took him less than a minute to find cases prosecuted for false claims of principal residences and the other allegations.
“This is a person who prosecuted Trump for everything short of ripping a label off a mattress, and among the charges that were brought in New York, in just the civil but the criminal case, was making false or misleading statements to financial institutions,” Turley said. “As for James, if we apply the Letitia James standard that she created, there’d be little question here. This seems pretty straightforward.”
Megyn likened the allegations to “an earthquake” given her history. “This woman devoted years of her life to bringing down Donald Trump for what? For alleged misrepresentations to banks about the value of his properties so he could secure more favorable loans than he was entitled to,” she explained. “In a different dressing, it is the same general fashion as what she is being accused of herself.”
James has yet to address the allegations directly, but her office put out a statement saying: “Attorney General James is focused every single day on protecting New Yorkers, especially as this Administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law and the Constitution. She will not be intimidated by bullies – no matter who they are.”
In Ungar-Sargon’s view, this is but the latest example of lawfare backfiring on the left. “I always say Donald Trump has a real genius for bringing out the lowest qualities in his opponents,” she said. “But here we have something even more delicious, which is that it was revealed that the person attacking him for all of these trumped up, ridiculous charges, who went after him for the pure sake of going after the political rival of the Democrats… was herself allegedly engaged in the very things that she was pretending he was doing, which he was not actually doing.”
“It is just chef’s kiss because it is such a parallel for the Democrats who accuse Donald Trump of being a threat to democracy while themselves undermining democracy. They accuse him of weaponizing the law while themselves weaponizing the law,” she continued. “And this is just such a beautiful, perfect bow on top of the box of their hypocrisy where he again and again comes out ahead.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Ungar-Sargon by tuning in to episode 1,050 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.