Donald Trump’s effort to prosecute his political enemies has become even harder to defend.
Legal experts have identified yet another chink in the armor of the already-fraught charges against New York Attorney General and longtime Trump foe Letitia James. James stands accused of committing mortgage fraud in a case brought by attack-dog Lindsey Halligan—Trump’s handpicked top prosecutor in Eastern Virginia.
Halligan, Trump’s personal attorney with no prior prosecutorial experience, alleges that James falsely claimed a second home in Norfolk, Virginia, as her primary residence to secure better loan terms, and then violated her mortgage by renting it out.
But real-estate and legal scholars told Politico on Wednesday that Halligan’s case has a fatal flaw: the mortgage contract doesn’t actually prohibit rentals. In fact, it expressly allows them under certain conditions.
In James’ “Second Home Rider,” first obtained by Politico from the Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, the contract requires her to “maintain exclusive control over the occupancy of the Property, including short-term rentals.”
“In plain English, the provision means that James is explicitly permitted to rent the place out periodically, so long as she remains in charge of matters such as the number of tenants and how they use the property,” legal experts told the outlet.
“The core of the allegations is that James knowingly lied that she was not going to rent,” Adam Levitin, a Georgetown Law professor who specializes in banking and finance law, told the outlet after reviewing James’ Second Home Rider.
“The problem is there is absolutely no statement ever made by James that she would not rent out the property—the contract language does not prohibit rentals, it prohibits rentals via a third party.”
James has been one of Trump’s fiercest adversaries since her 2018 campaign for New York attorney general and remains one of the most reviled law-enforcement figures among his MAGA base.
The attorney general successfully sued the Trump Organization for fraud last year and is leading multiple lawsuits challenging the president’s policies.
She pleaded not guilty during her first appearance in Virginia court on Friday morning and moved to sanction Halligan—a 36-year-old former Miss Colorado pageant contestant—who allegedly used Signal earlier this month to communicate with a journalist about the criminal case she is pursuing against James.
James’ defense team argued that Halligan violated multiple ethical and secrecy rules by discussing the credibility and strength of the evidence presented to the grand jury.
Halligan’s abrupt rise followed the sudden resignation of Erik Siebert, who reportedly stepped down under pressure from the president to indict both James and former FBI Director James Comey.
Another Trump adversary, Comey was charged last month with making a false statement and obstruction related to his September 30, 2020 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, when he was leading the investigation into alleged Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
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