New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference January 8, 2025 in New York.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
A federal grand jury in Virginia has indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on one count of bank fraud, after President Trump’s continued pressure to prosecute one of his longtime political enemies.
The indictment was confirmed by a source who was not authorized to publicly discuss the accusation.
James, a Democrat who pledged to investigate Trump during his campaign, ultimately sued Trump and his company for inflating the value of some of his properties, winning more than $450 million in the civil business fraud case.
At one of his own campaign rallies last year, Trump called for James and the judge overseeing the case “to be arrested and punished accordingly.”
Representatives for James did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia spent months on the case this year. A career Republican prosecutor determined there was not enough evidence to bring a case against James. He was then forced out of his post by the White House, only to be replaced by Lindsey Halligan, a former Florida insurance lawyer with no experience as a prosecutor.
The accusations against James were pushed in part by Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s weapons chief, who traveled to Brooklyn to stand in front of one of James’ properties, where he was photographed by The New York Post. Father Lowell, a lawyer for James, criticized Martin for targeting Democratic lawmakers and other figures to settle scores for Trump.
“The DOJ has strong policies against the use of investigations and against the use of prosecutorial power for political purposes,” Lowell wrote to the Justice Department in August. “This is all the more true when this demand is made with the aim of political revenge against an official of the opposing party of the Administration.”
Last month, Halligan obtained an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, who has pleaded not guilty to two criminal charges.
