{"id":55163,"date":"2025-11-28T23:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T23:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55163\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T23:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T23:40:10","slug":"exclusive-letitia-james-hit-with-complaint-after-fraud-charges-tossed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55163\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | Letitia James hit with complaint after fraud charges tossed"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 New York Attorney General Letitia James was hit with a bar complaint from a right-leaning group on Friday, days after having her federal mortgage fraud charges tossed by a judge<\/a> in a temporary procedural win.<\/p>\n

The Center to Advance Security in America submitted a request with the Manhattan and Bronx-focused Attorney Grievance Committee for the state to investigate James\u2019 potentially \u201cillegal and dishonest conduct\u201d leading to the criminal charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cFraud, misrepresentation, honesty and trustworthiness are all factors that the Rules of Professional Conduct expressly factor when weighing whether to discipline an attorney,\u201d wrote Curtis Schube, the group\u2019s director of research and policy, in the four-page complaint.<\/p>\n

New York Attorney General Letitia James was hit with a bar complaint from a right-leaning group on Friday, days after having her federal mortgage fraud charges tossed by a judge in a temporary procedural win. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Committee, therefore, should immediately investigate the allegations against James and, if by \u2018preponderance of the evidence\u2019 the allegations are substantiated, she should be disciplined accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior US District Judge Cameron Currie on Monday dismissed the federal charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution brought against James brought in the Eastern District of Virginia.<\/p>\n

Currie ordered that Lindsey Halligan, who is serving as a special attorney in US attorney\u2019s office for that district, \u201chad no lawful authority\u201d to secure the two-count indictment since she had not been confirmed by Congress or an appropriate judicial panel.<\/p>\n

Former President Bill Clinton had appointed Currie to the federal bench in 1994 and she was confirmed the same year.<\/p>\n

\u201cFraud, misrepresentation, honesty and trustworthiness are all factors that the Rules of Professional Conduct expressly factor when weighing whether to discipline an attorney,\u201d wrote Curtis Schube, the group\u2019s director of research and policy, in a four-page complaint. modernizegovernance.com<\/p>\n

\u201cI am heartened by today\u2019s victory and grateful for the prayers and support I have received from around the country,\u201d James said in a statement Monday, the day the charges were tossed. \u201cI remain fearless in the face of these baseless charges as I continue fighting for New Yorkers every single day.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

The indictment \u2014 along with two more charges brought by Halligan against former FBI Director James Comey \u2014 was dismissed without prejudice, allowing President Trump\u2019s Department of Justice to appeal the ruling and refile charges against James.<\/p>\n

The five-year statute of limitations in Comey\u2019s case, meanwhile, has expired. <\/p>\n

Currie ordered that Lindsey Halligan, who is now serving as a special attorney, \u201chad no lawful authority\u201d to secure the two-count indictment since she had not been confirmed by Congress or an appropriate judicial panel. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal to hold Letitia James and James Comey accountable for their unlawful conduct,\u201d Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday at a press conference in Memphis.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s complaint comes after James was indicted on Oct. 9 for allegedly falsifying mortgage documents to secure a $109,600 loan on a Norfolk, Va., property that she claimed as a primary residence but has been inhabited by a grandniece with a long rap sheet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The apparently fraudulent loan terms netted her nearly $19,000 extra over the lifetime of the mortgage, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The indictment \u2014 along with two more charges brought by Halligan against former FBI Director James Comey \u2014 was dismissed without prejudice, allowing President Trump\u2019s Department of Justice to appeal the ruling. Getty Images<\/p>\n

James\u2019\u00a02020<\/a>,\u00a02021<\/a>,\u00a02022<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a02023<\/a>\u00a0disclosures to the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government listed a Norfolk home as an \u201cinvestment\u201d property, valued at between \u201c$100,000 to under $150,000.\u201d\u00a0She reported it paying her between $1,000 and $5,000 in income.<\/p>\n

But her\u00a02024<\/a>\u00a0ethics filing designated it as \u201creal property,\u201d not an \u201cinvestment,\u201d\u00a0that generated no income.<\/p>\n

James\u2019\u00a02024\u00a0ethics filing designated her Norfolk home as \u201creal property,\u201d not an \u201cinvestment,\u201d\u00a0that generated no income. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

That last disclosure came in May \u2014 one month after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte referred James to the DOJ for possible mortgage fraud related to a second home she purchased in Norfolk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James faces up to 60 years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million if convicted on all charges<\/a> and slapped with the maximum sentencing.<\/p>\n

Reps for James did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 New York Attorney General Letitia James was hit with a bar complaint from a right-leaning group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10917,68,396,398,9,11,10,87,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-55163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-ethics","9":"tag-exclusive","10":"tag-fraud","11":"tag-letitia-james","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55163","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=55163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}