New York Attorney General Letitia James finds herself in the same pot she tried to cook President Donald Trump in just a year ago. And while she still has much of the left-wing media apparatus on her side, it appears that the law is not.
Federal criminal charge was unsealed October 9 in the Eastern District of Virginia. revealing that a federal grand jury indicted James on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. The case mirrors elements of James's own civil lawsuit against Trump, in which she accused him of making similar misrepresentations to secure better terms.
When James won a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump in which she supposed The media has praised James for her decades-long history of fraudulent business practices under New York State Executive Law Section 63(12), often highlighting her strategic conduct and substantial evidence in the case.
CBS News lawyer Ricky Klieman described the February 2024 verdict as a “huge win” for James, adding that it “absolutely started this whole thing.”
“This is a huge victory for Letitia James. You have to remember that she was the one who essentially initiated all of this, that she was the one, as I said on the day of the filing, who dared, absolutely dared, New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg to pursue a prosecution that he declined,” Kleeman said. “And that's why she wins. Anyone who says, well, she didn't get it all, she got so much. She's definitely going to be the one to celebrate tonight.”
“This is a huge win for Letitia James.” CBS News Lawyer @rikkijklieman says the verdict in Trump's civil case is a “victory” for New York prosecutor Letitia James, who has pushed District Attorney Alvin Bragg to continue prosecuting the former president. https://t.co/USKycZ7efM pic.twitter.com/B7aG3RYgA0
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 16, 2024
Political strategist Risi Colbert said TheGrio stated in March 2024 that James was the real winner in the case against Trump.
“There is a certain poetic justice to a black woman exposing a criminal, degenerate former president as a complete fraud,” Colbert said.
“She really went after Donald Trump fearlessly and did it methodically and did it in a way that made her case impeccable. That's why she won such a big victory,” Colbert added.
Even Democratic Senate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries showed his support for James in X's November 2024 post urging people to “[b]get away from her.
“Attorney General Tish James is a smart, strong and principled public servant who I have known for decades,” he said, adding, “Get away from her.”
Attorney General Tish James is a smart, strong and principled public servant I have known for decades.
Move away from her.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) November 9, 2024
The charges against James stem from her 2020 purchase of a three-bedroom home for $109,600 in Norfolk, Virginia, where she allegedly misrepresented the property as her primary or secondary residence on loan applications to secure a lower interest rate and better terms, but instead used it as a rental property. (Sign up for Mary Rook's weekly newsletter here!)
The indictment alleges that James signed a “second home” agreement that stated the Virginia home would serve as her second residence, entitling her to a lower interest rate of 3%. In August 2020, mortgage rates for investment properties for a period of 30 years ranged from 3.5% to 3.75% for private houses. Prosecutors accuse James of violating the terms of her mortgage agreement by using it as a rental property for her family of three. The alleged misrepresentations saved her approximately $18,933 over the life of the loan.
In April, the Daily Caller News Foundation visited property named in the indictment and determined that James did not reside there.
Legal commentator Jonathan Turley on Fox News' “The Ingraham Angle” discussed charges in court documents Thursday. He implied that if false statements of primary residence and other misrepresentations were proven, they would clearly violate laws against deceptive financial institutions, adding that the case was “absolutely devastating” given the irony of the lawsuit she filed against Trump. (RU: Democrats can't stop admitting their foot soldiers are out of control)
“This is the man who prosecuted Trump for everything except ripping a label off a mattress, and among the charges brought in New York, not only in a civil case but also in a criminal case, was making false or misleading statements to financial institutions,” Turley said. “As far as James is concerned, if we apply the Letitia James standard that she created, there won't be any question there. It seems pretty simple.”
Turley added that “the documents themselves are very compelling.”
It must be a hard fall for a man like James. Her own words of February 2024 in the Trump case are especially damning given her indictment.
When powerful people cheat to get better loans, it comes at the expense of hardworking people.
Every day Americans can't lie to the bank to get a mortgage, and if they did, our government would throw the book at them.
There simply cannot be different rules for different people.
— CEO James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 16, 2024
“When powerful people cheat to get better loans, it comes at the expense of hardworking people,” she wrote. “Ordinary Americans can't lie to the bank to get a mortgage, and if they did, our government would throw the book at them. There just can't be different rules for different people.”
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