WASHINGTON — New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who has clashed with President Donald Trump, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Virginia, three sources familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.
James was charged with one count of bank fraud after Trump publicly called for his Justice Department appointees to bring charges against her.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker, a Biden appointee.
As NBC News reported in August, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed a special attorney to probe mortgage fraud allegations against the New York attorney general, who brought a successful civil fraud case against President Donald Trump before he retook the presidency. Though the text of the indictment is not yet public, the bank fraud charge appears to be related to the mortgage claims.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte had referred the case to the Justice Department, alleging that James had made false statements on mortgage loan applications. But the case hit a standstill last month because federal agents and prosecutors didn’t believe they had the evidence to secure a conviction, two senior federal law enforcement officials told NBC News last month.
Trump then named one of his personal attorneys, Lindsey Halligan, to be acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, though she lacked any prosecutorial experience.
Trump has repeatedly sought charges against his political enemies, including James and former FBI Director James Comey, who was indicted in September on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Trump said on Truth Social less than a week before Comey’s indictment. In addition to Comey and James, Trump has called for charges against Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Halligan presented the case against Comey to a federal grand jury, doing so by herself in a break from DOJ norms and convincing a majority of the grand jurors that there was probable cause to indict Comey on two of the three counts she presented. Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday and plans to challenge Halligan’s appointment.
The standard for securing an indictment before a federal grand jury is much lower than securing a unanimous conviction by a jury at trial. The Justice Manual, which guides federal prosecutors, says that attorneys for the government should only move forward on a case if they believe the admissible evidence would be enough to obtain and sustain a conviction.
“It would be interesting to see how many grand jurors actually voted for the indictment,” former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said Thursday on NBC News NOW. “In the case of Jim Comey, it was 14 out of 23. And I will tell you, as a prosecutor, if I had even one or two grand jurors expressing concern and not voting for an indictment, I would be very, very concerned because they are only voting on probable cause and they are not voting beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Democrats swiftly condemned the Trump administration over James’ indictment, much like they did after Comey was charged.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday on X that Americans were seeing “nothing less than the weaponization of the Justice Department to punish those who hold the powerful accountable.”
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