A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The office said a conviction could carry up to 30 years in prison on each count, along with fines and forfeiture, and emphasized that an indictment is an accusation and that the defendant is presumed innocent.
The New York Attorney General’s Office said in a statement released soon after that James views the case as a continuation of what she calls the president’s “weaponization” of federal law enforcement. She said the charges are false and that the prosecution is political retribution tied to her office’s lawsuit against the Trump Organization.
U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan said “no one is above the law” and described the alleged conduct as “tremendous breaches of the public’s trust.” Sentencing, if any, would be determined by a federal judge under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
James stated that the president fired a U.S. attorney who refused to bring a case against her and replaced that person with someone “blindly loyal.” She called on leaders of both parties to speak out against what she called a “perversion” of the justice system and said her office would “fight these baseless charges aggressively” while continuing its work.
The New York Attorney General’s Office also said that courts have supported civil fraud findings against Donald Trump, his firm, and two of his sons. James cited a two-year investigation her agency conducted and said the work was based on facts, not politics.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia notice did not include information on an initial court appearance. Prosecutors reiterated that the facts and the law would decide the case, while the defense cast the charges as politically driven.
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