Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy were not given notice that a Trump-allied prosecutor in Virginia planned to indict Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, for bank fraud on Thursday afternoon, according to people familiar with the matter.
Their lack of awareness was a striking conclusion to weeks of fierce internal debate and drama over President Trump’s public demand that Ms. Bondi act quickly to deliver charges against Ms. James, who incurred the president’s wrath after bringing a civil case against him over his business practices.
The absence of coordination described by the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal department matters, was the result of several factors. Those included the government shutdown, a rush to bring an indictment against a Trump target over the objection of career prosecutors who had determined there was insufficient evidence, and divisions between department leaders and the Trump-installed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan.
Ms. Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, had been generally made aware of the effort by Ms. Halligan to secure an indictment against Ms. James, but were not told in advance that the effort would culminate in a grand jury vote on Thursday, these people said.
Among those surprised to learn the case was being argued before the grand jury on Thursday: Aakash Singh, an associate deputy attorney general who oversees the work of U.S. attorneys around the country, one of those people said.
Chad Gilmartin, a Justice Department spokesman, said he would not discuss grand jury matters. But he downplayed any divisions, saying the department was “united as one team.”
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