The animosity between Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, and President Trump goes back years, to Mr. Trump’s first term in office. Here is what led to Ms. James’s indictment on Thursday.
Nov. 6, 2018: Speaking to supporters in Brooklyn on the night she was elected attorney general, Ms. James announced to Mr. Trump: “We here in New York — and I, in particular — we are not scared of you.” She promised to shine “a bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings, and every dealing, demanding truthfulness at every turn.”
March 11, 2019: Ms. James began acting on her promise, opening a civil investigation into some projects by Mr. Trump’s family business, the Trump Organization. She focused on the congressional testimony of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, that Mr. Trump had inflated his assets in financial statements. Mr. Trump and his lawyers fought the inquiry bitterly, and at one point a New York State judge held Mr. Trump in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena for some of his personal records.
Sept. 21, 2022: Ms. James, who was running for re-election, hit Mr. Trump with a sweeping lawsuit, accusing him and some of his family members of lying to lenders and insurers by fraudulently overvaluing his assets by billions of dollars. Ms. James sought to bar the Trumps, including the president’s children Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka, from running a business in New York again.
“Another Witch Hunt by a racist Attorney General, Letitia James,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post, adding that “she is a fraud who campaigned on a ‘get Trump’ platform.”
Feb. 16, 2024: After a monthslong trial, a New York judge found Mr. Trump liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordered him to pay a penalty of nearly $355 million plus interest — more than half a billion dollars in total. Ms. James celebrated the result and said in a news conference, “This long-running fraud was intentional, egregious, illegal.” The case became a career-defining victory.
Mr. Trump held a news conference from Mar-a-Lago, his home in Palm Beach, Fla., where he called both Ms. James and the judge “corrupt.” He vowed to appeal.
April 14, 2025: About three months into Mr. Trump’s second term, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency sent a criminal referral letter to the Justice Department, saying that Ms. James “appeared to have falsified records” related to properties in Virginia and New York to receive favorable loan terms. Mr. Trump, it appeared, was making good on his promises of retribution and had begun laying the groundwork for an inquiry of his own.
Aug. 8, 2025: The Justice Department opened an investigation into Ms. James’s office, examining whether it had violated Mr. Trump’s civil rights in its fraud suit. Officials sent subpoenas to Ms. James’s office.
Aug. 21, 2025: A divided New York appeals court threw out the hefty fine Mr. Trump had been ordered to pay, calling it excessive, but upheld the judgment that Mr. Trump had inflated his assets, allowing Mr. Trump to continue his appeal in New York’s highest court.
Ms. James said the decision “affirmed the well-supported finding of the trial court: Donald Trump, his company and two of his children are liable for fraud.” She added that she would appeal the decision absolving Mr. Trump of the penalty.
Oct. 9, 2025: Ms. James was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on charges of bank fraud and making false statements relating to a house she owns in Virginia.
Ms. James said in a statement that the accusations were baseless: “The president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost.”
Taylor Robinson is a Times reporter covering the New York City metro area.
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