New York Attorney General Letitia James is now under criminal investigation over her targeting of both President Donald Trump and another instance at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, Breitbart News has learned.
Two sources briefed on the matter told Breitbart News that subpoenas have been sent to James focusing on what they say are allegations she engaged in what is called a “deprivation of rights” when she targeted Trump and another instance. Subpoenas have been issued, these sources say, and there is an active and open grand jury investigation that was ordered by Bondi and is being run by a U.S. Attorney’s office in New York. While the sources did not specify which U.S. Attorney in New York is handling the James investigation — there are multiple U.S. Attorney’s offices in New York — since her office is in Albany and that that is from where she took these actions for which she is now under investigation, it would be appear that probably means the northern district in New York is the one handling this.
While these sources briefed on the matter did not say more than this investigation was focused on a “deprivation of rights” question, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division website quite clearly specifically includes statutes focused on this front. “Section 242 of Title 18 makes it a crime for a person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States,” the Justice Department website states.
The DOJ website notes as well that depending on the severity of such an offense, if someone is convicted of this federal crime they could face life in prison or even the death penalty.
“For the purpose of Section 242, acts under ‘color of law’ include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within their lawful authority, but also acts done beyond the bounds of that official’s lawful authority, if the acts are done while the official is purporting to or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties,” the DOJ website states. “Persons acting under color of law within the meaning of this statute include police officers, prisons guards and other law enforcement officials, as well as judges, care providers in public health facilities, and others who are acting as public officials. It is not necessary that the crime be motivated by animus toward the race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin of the victim.”
Again, it is unclear if that is the specific statute under which James faces criminal investigation, but the sources briefed on the matter did say that the investigation is focused on a “deprivation of rights” case with regard to Trump and with regard to another instance as well. Since subpoenas have been issued, normally federal subpoenas would cite a specific statute — but again, those documents are not as of yet publicly available.
This news comes after it was revealed in May of 2025 that James was under FBI investigation for potential alleged mortgage fraud. She now faces multiple criminal investigations from federal law enforcement.
James regularly campaigned for the office she holds now on going after Trump, and this line of investigation is likely to prove to be fruitful because of the fact she was so open about plotting to come after him before she won her election as New York Attorney General. As Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow details in his just-published book Breaking The Law, James pledged to come after Trump — and then did so.
In a piece this week explaining the ties back to the Democrat Joe Biden White House of all the lawfare against Trump establishing the fact pattern laid out in his book, Marlow had this key detail:
Letitia “Tish” James is a partisan Democrat who ran and won her race for New York Attorney General specifically to try to destroy Trump. She is one of the most open and public practitioners of lawfare featured in the book. She once told a group of New York Democrats that “I look forward to going into the office of the Attorney General every day, suing [Trump], and then going home.” She uses the law to advance political goals, and she doesn’t hide that fact. Despite rising crime in New York during her tenure as state AG, she seems entirely fixated on getting Trump.
In addition, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in February 2014, when she was House GOP conference chairwoman, sent a 64-page letter to the New York Committee on Professional Standards demanding that James be disbarred over the at least 50 specific examples of prejudicial comments she made about Trump before going after him in various civil litigation in New York in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.
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