The MAGA-led legal effort to punish New York Attorney General Letitia James has another glaring hole.
The fragile mortgage fraud indictment against James accuses her of lying about her financial situation in order to get a better loan rate when she purchased a home in Virginia in 2023. Prosecutors’ main gotcha accuses James of violating that loan agreement by renting the property out.
Except she actually was allowed to rent it out, according to legal and real estate experts that spoke Wednesday with Politico, which noted that “the key language in the contract expressly allows renting under certain conditions.”
James is charged with two counts of financial fraud in connection to the Norfolk home. She pleaded not guilty Friday to the federal charges.
The case has been fraught from the beginning: The last attorney tasked with leading the legal effort against James was given the boot in September after his team was unable to find incriminating evidence that she had knowingly committed fraud.
New York’s top cop has become one of Donald Trump’s chief legal adversaries since she bested him in his bank fraud case in 2024. Trump’s revenge began to take form in April, when his administration launched an investigation into James’s personal finances, accusing her of lying on her bank statements in order to obtain better mortgage rates.
At the time, Trump referred to her as a “totally corrupt politician,” a “wacky crook,” and accused James—the first woman of color to hold statewide office in New York—of being “racist.”
James has since been a star against Trump’s political retribution tour, as she has repeatedly promised to hold him to account, regardless of his presidential status. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, James has filed dozens of lawsuits against his administration. They range from legal rejections of Trump’s tariffs to fighting his “big, beautiful” budget’s attempt to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood clinics.
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