(Reuters) -New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime foe of President Donald Trump, was indicted for bank fraud on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter said, as the administration seeks to use government power against those who have pursued investigations into him or publicly resisted his agenda.
Trump, a Republican who campaigned for reelection in part on a vow of retribution after facing a slew of legal woes since his first term in the White House ended in 2021, has repeatedly assailed James on social media and at political rallies as a partisan enemy.
The indictment of James comes after a grand jury in Virginia on September 25 indicted former FBI Director James Comey on charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation. Comey has said he is innocent. Trump has regularly assailed Comey’s handling of the FBI investigation that detailed contacts between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
James is one of several Democratic state attorneys general who have sued to block Trump administration actions. She is best known for bringing a civil fraud case against Trump and his family real estate company in 2022. The case resulted in a $454.2 million penalty against Trump after a judge found he fraudulently overstated his net worth to dupe lenders.
A New York state appeals court in August threw out the penalty, which had grown to more than a half-billion dollars with interest, but upheld the trial judge’s finding that Trump was liable for fraud. Both Trump and James’ office are appealing to the state’s highest court.
Trump denied wrongdoing. He has accused James’ office of bringing the case against him for political reasons.
PROBE OPENED IN MAY
In May, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into mortgage fraud allegations against James.
The probe was opened after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, a Trump appointee, sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department alleging James “falsified records” to obtain favorable loans on homes she purchased in Virginia and Brooklyn.
James’ lawyer Abbe Lowell said in May those accusations were “baseless and long-discredited.”
The Justice Department, after receiving referrals from Pulte, has also opened mortgage fraud probes into U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat who led the House of Representatives’ inquiry that led to Trump’s impeachment in 2019, and Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden.
Neither Schiff nor Cook has been charged with a crime, and they both deny wrongdoing.
JAMES’ OFFICE SLAMS ‘WEAPONIZATION’
In August, the Justice Department convened a grand jury and subpoenaed James’ office for documents about the lawsuit and a separate case she brought against the National Rifle Association, a person familiar with the investigation told Reuters at the time.
In the NRA case, jurors found its former CEO, Wayne LaPierre, and others liable for years of financial mismanagement, but a judge decided not to impose an outside monitor for the gun rights group.
The federal prosecutors looking into James were examining whether her cases deprived Trump and others of their civil rights, the person said.
Legal decisions are often appealed, but it is highly unusual for a government lawyer to face a criminal investigation over cases they have brought, especially those that have gone to trial and been sustained by courts.
Lowell called the civil rights probe “the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign.”
“Any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American. We stand strongly behind our successful litigation,” James’ office said in a statement on August 8.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Rod Nickel)
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