President Donald Trump’s Justice Department suffered yet another humiliating setback on Thursday, as a grand jury in Virginia refused to return a fraud indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James — the second time this has happened since the original case against her was thrown out.
According to ABC News, “Federal prosecutors on Thursday failed to convince a majority of grand jurors to approve charges that James misled a bank to obtain favorable loan terms on a home mortgage, according to sources. The charges were presented to a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia’s Alexandria branch after a grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia, last week rejected the charges.”
A federal grand jury rejecting a prosecutor’s proposed indictment, also called a “no true bill,” is extremely rare, as prosecutors generally get to present their case unchallenged at this stage of a criminal investigation.
The allegations against James stem from Trump’s housing finance director, Bill Pulte, who has lodged similar complaints against a number of people who happen to be political critics or opponents of the president.
Pulte is currently under a separate investigation, which is looking at how he obtained that information.
Initially, Trump’s acting prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, obtained an indictment against James. That case was thrown out, however, after a federal judge ruled the DOJ had improperly appointed Halligan to the role, which voided the indictment, as only her signature was on the documents.
Despite that loss, Halligan is continuing to serve in the U.S. Attorney’s office despite ongoing calls for her resignation.
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