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 is about to find herself in court.
Six months after 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, James was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bank fraud and false statements to a financial institution.
The Indictment
As reported on Friday’s AM Update, the indictment alleges James signed documents in 2020 that required her to occupy and use a three-bedroom home in Norfolk, Virginia, as her secondary residence. She was also prohibited from renting the property. These pledges allowed her to obtain favorable loan terms not available to rental properties.
According to the Department of Justice, the AG did, in fact, rent out the home to a family of three. The indictment alleges that “the scheme involved falsely representing the property as a secondary residence to obtain favorable mortgage terms while using it as an investment property with no intended or actual personal occupancy or use by her.”
The case was brought by Lindsay Halligan, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who was sworn in last month after her predecessor, Eric Siebert, vacated the post reportedly over calls to bring charges against James and former FBI director James Comey. The case has reportedly been assigned to Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker.
The Reaction
In a statement, Halligan invoked James’ own words. “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,” she said. “The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
James, meanwhile, released a dramatic video on social media in which she declared herself a “fearless” person who will fight the charges aggressively. “This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General,” she said. “These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost.”
Democrats have struck a similar tone, condemning the indictment as a “weaponization” of the DOJ. “New Yorkers know [James] for her integrity, her independence, and her relentless fight for justice,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul claimed on X. “What we’re seeing today is nothing less than the weaponization of the Justice Department to punish those who hold the powerful accountable.”
But Scott Jennings, former political director for Mitch McConnell and one of the lone sane voices on CNN, said Dem arguments about selective prosecution will not fly. “[James’] entire career is built on the selective prosecution of one man,” he said Thursday night. “To me, it’s just not gonna fly to boo hoo over selective prosecutions on this particular person who promised in her campaigns, who went after him on things… that had no business, no business ever happening, if not but for the man’s last name being Trump.”
Eric Trump’s Take
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Eric Trump to discuss his new memoir, Under Siege, and he was a very fitting guest given the fact that he found himself across the courtroom from James many times over the last several years.
“I’ll never forget walking into her office for one of the depositions and this law enforcement officer came up to me… and he goes, ‘Eric, I’ve been in this office for 30 years, and now I work for Letitia James… I’m sorry this office is a national embarrassment,'” he recalled. “She campaigned on the promise and fundraised on the promise of going into the office every single day of attorney general, suing Donald Trump, and then going home.”
Her cases against the Trumps have since fallen apart on appeal, but his book goes into great detail about the toll lawfare took on them. “I became the most subpoenaed person in American history… only because I was a guy who ran the Trump Organization that didn’t have the same constitutional protections that my father had. They took us off of YouTube. They took us off of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram… They debanked us. They did everything they could to kill us, to bankrupt us, to hide us, to remove our voice, to make sure that the family got torn apart,” Trump recalled. “And then I get to hear CNN talk about how Donald Trump is weaponizing law enforcement.”
Trump said that, in his opinion, it “seems pretty clear that Leticia James lied on her mortgage application [and] did exactly what she accused us of doing.” This is but the latest example, he said, of how Democrats “dig so deep that they find themselves.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Trump by tuning in to episode 1,169 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.