{"id":61395,"date":"2025-12-05T01:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T01:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/61395\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T01:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T01:49:11","slug":"grand-jury-rejects-new-mortgage-fraud-indictment-against-new-york-attorney-general-letitia-james-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/61395\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand jury rejects new mortgage fraud indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James"},"content":{"rendered":"

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) \u2014 The Justice Department failed Thursday to secure a new indictment against New York Attorney General\u00a0Letitia James<\/a>\u00a0after a\u00a0judge dismissed the previous mortgage fraud prosecution<\/a>\u00a0encouraged by President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors went back to a grand jury in Virginia after a judge\u2019s ruling halting the prosecution of James and another longtime Trump foe, former FBI Director\u00a0James Comey<\/a>, on the grounds that the U.S. attorney who presented the cases was illegally appointed. But grand jurors rejected prosecutors\u2019 request to bring charges.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest setback for the Justice Department in its bid to prosecute the frequent political target of the Republican president.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors are expected to try again for an indictment, according to one person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.<\/p>\n

James was initially charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020. Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide and Trump lawyer, personally presented the case to the grand jury in October\u00a0after being installed<\/a>\u00a0as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia amid pressure from Trump to charge Comey and James.<\/p>\n

James has denied any wrongdoing and accused the administration of using the justice system to seek revenge against Trump\u2019s political opponents. In a statement Thursday, James said: \u201cIt is time for this unchecked weaponization of our justice system to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should be the end of this case,\u201d her attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. \u201cIf they continue, undeterred by a court ruling and a grand jury\u2019s rejection of the charges, it will be a shocking assault on the rule of law and a devastating blow to the integrity of our justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The allegations related to James\u2019 purchase of a modest house in Norfolk, where she has family. During the sale, she signed a standard document called a \u201csecond home rider\u201d in which she agreed to keep the property primarily for her \u201cpersonal use and enjoyment for at least one year,\u201d unless the lender agreed otherwise.<\/p>\n

Rather than using the home as a second residence, James rented it out to a family of three, allowing her to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties, prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest example of pushback by grand jurors since the beginning of the second Trump administration. It\u2019s so unusual for grand jurors to refuse to return an indictment that it was once said that prosecutors could persuade a grand jury to \u201cindict a ham sandwich.\u201d But the Justice Department has faced setbacks in front of grand juries in several recent cases.<\/p>\n

Even if the charges against James are resurrected, the Justice Department could face obstacles in securing a conviction against James.<\/p>\n

James\u2019 lawyers separately argued the case was a vindictive prosecution brought to punish the Trump critic who spent years investigating and suing the Republican president and\u00a0won a staggering judgment<\/a>\u00a0in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. The fine was later tossed out by a higher court, but both sides are appealing.<\/p>\n

The defense had also alleged \u201coutrageous government conduct\u201d preceding her indictment, which the defense argued warrants the case\u2019s dismissal. The judge hadn\u2019t ruled on the defense\u2019s arguments on those matters before dismissing the case last month over the appointment of Lindsey Halligan as U.S. attorney.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie took issue with the mechanism the Trump administration employed to appoint Halligan to lead one of the Justice Department\u2019s most elite and important offices.<\/p>\n

Halligan was named as a replacement for Erik Siebert,\u00a0a veteran prosecutor in the office<\/a>\u00a0and interim U.S. attorney who resigned in September amid Trump administration pressure to file charges against both Comey and James.<\/p>\n

The following night, Trump said he would be nominating Halligan to the role of interim U.S. attorney and publicly implored Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against his political opponents, saying in a Truth Social post that, \u201cWe can\u2019t delay any longer, it\u2019s killing our reputation and credibility\u201d and \u201cJUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Comey was indicted three days after Halligan was sworn in by Bondi, and James was charged two weeks after that.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department had defended Halligan\u2019s appointment but has also revealed that Bondi had given Halligan a separate position of \u201cSpecial Attorney,\u201d presumably as a way to protect the indictments from the possibility of collapse. But Currie said such a retroactive designation could not save the cases.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Richer reported from Washington.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORFOLK, Va. (AP) \u2014 The Justice Department failed Thursday to secure a new indictment against New York Attorney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,32706,397,1082,10905,9,3594,11,10],"class_list":["post-61395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-donald-trump","tag-grand-jury","tag-indictment","tag-justice-department","tag-mortgage-fraud","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-attorney-general-letitia-james","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61395","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=61395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}