Trump administration officials are pressuring federal prosecutors to bring mortgage fraud charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, even as investigators say they have found no evidence that would support a criminal case, according to reporting from ABC News.
The investigation focuses on whether James lied on mortgage paperwork when she purchased a Virginia home in 2023 by saying the home would be her primary residence. After interviewing more than a dozen witnesses, investigators have so far concluded that there was only one document listing the house as James’s primary residence, which was never used to approve the mortgage and reportedly not prepared by James herself. Every other document stated that the house would not be her primary residence, sources familiar with the case told ABC.
Despite that, Justice Department officials Ed Martin and Bill Pulte have urged the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to bring charges. When prosecutors recently opted against an indictment, Pulte reportedly encouraged President Trump to fire U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert and install a replacement willing to proceed. Trump himself also reportedly has urged the DOJ to keep investigating the case.
James has denied wrongdoing. The push from the administration comes after a civil fraud case James won against Trump last year, a case that led to a massive financial penalty before being reduced on appeal. Her attorney, Abbe Lowell, dismissed the referral as “three pages of stale, threadbare allegations.”
“Given the cascade of unsubstantiated allegations coming from the Trump Administration on its ‘mortgage fraud’ crusade against Democrats, it’s no surprise they are having trouble finding an objective and law-abiding prosecutor who would ignore the facts and the evidence to manufacture sham charges,” Lowell said in a statement to ABC News.
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The mortgage probe is part of a wider campaign targeting Trump’s political opponents for alleged mortgage fraud. Similar accusations have been lodged against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, who Trump has tried to remove from her job based on the claims, and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., both of whom have denied wrongdoing.
Trump has consistently attacked James on social media. In April, he called for her resignation, saying that New York City could never recover so long as a “wacky crook” was in the attorney general’s office
“[T]his is what we call the ‘weaponization of justice.’ Right out in the open,” former GOP Congressman Joe Walsh wrote on X in response to the ABC News report.
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