{"id":15052,"date":"2025-10-24T15:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15052\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T15:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:29:11","slug":"new-york-attorney-general-letitia-james-pleads-not-guilty-to-bank-fraud-false-statements-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15052\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Attorney General Letitia James pleads not guilty to bank fraud, false statements charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

NORFOLK, Va. \u2014 New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty Friday to a pair of federal charges stemming from her purchase of a Virginia property more than five years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James, 67, was indicted Oct. 9 by a grand jury on one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution.<\/p>\n

The longtime Trump foe bought a three-bedroom, one-bathroom residence on Peronne Avenue in Norfolk with a $109,600 loan on Aug. 17, 2020, which was completed with a second home rider designating James as the \u201csole borrower to occupy and use the property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Letitia James leaves her Brooklyn brownstone with two suitcases on Thursday, the day before she is to appear in a Virginia court. Gabriella Bass<\/p>\n

Members of the public and media line up outside the Walter E. Hoffman United States Courthouse to attend an arraignment hearing for New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday in Norfolk, Virginia. Getty Images<\/p>\n

James bought a residence in Norfolk with a $109,600 loan on Aug. 17, 2020, completed with a second home rider designating her as the \u201csole borrower to occupy and use the property.\u201d Ron Sachs \u2013 CNP for NY Post<\/p>\n

But prosecutors have alleged the home \u201cwas not occupied or used\u201d by James and \u201cwas instead used as a rental investment property\u201d to house her grandniece Nakia Thompson<\/a>, giving James more favorable mortgage terms that benefitted her to the tune of nearly $19,000.<\/p>\n

New York State ethics filings<\/a>\u00a0show James had listed the residence as an \u201cinvestment\u201d property and accrued between $1,000 and $5,000 in rental income since 2020.<\/p>\n

However, James began listing the home as an asset in May of this year, when Federal Housing Finance Agency\u00a0Director William Pulte\u00a0referred<\/a>\u00a0her to the Department of Justice for prosecution based on allegedly false statements she made to purchase another home in the Norfolk area in 2023.<\/p>\n

Court-watchers wait in line outside the courthouse hours before James\u2019s hearing on Friday. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Neighbors who live on the same street as the Norfolk property\u00a0who spoke with The Post<\/a>\u00a0last week said they have never seen the state AG popping in for a visit.<\/p>\n

In an intial statement following the indictment, James decried the charges as \u201cbaseless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is nothing more than a continuation of the president\u2019s desperate weaponization of our justice system,\u201d she said. \u201cHe is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General.\u201d<\/p>\n

James won a civil judgment against the Trump Organization last year for allegedly inflating the value of his real estate empire. REUTERS<\/p>\n

James won a civil judgment against the Trump Organization last year for allegedly inflating the value of his real estate empire. The president was ordered to pay $355 million in penalties but successfully appealed in August to have the fine thrown out.<\/p>\n

James\u2019 office has appealed for reinstatement of the judgment, which had grown to more than $500 million with interest.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story; refresh the page for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORFOLK, Va. \u2014 New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty Friday to a pair of federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[396,398,9,11,10,87,58,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-15052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-fraud","9":"tag-letitia-james","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-us-news","15":"tag-virginia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}