November 7, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted Thursday in a mortgage fraud case. James was charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020.
The top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, a former aide to President Donald Trump, personally presented the case to the grand jury.
In a lengthy statement, James decried the indictment as “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”
Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who has worked as a lawyer for Trump, but had never previously served as a federal prosecutor, presented the James case to the grand jury herself, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Abbe Lowell, James’ lawyer, said James “flatly and forcefully denies these charges.” James is scheduled to make an initial appearance in the federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, on Oct. 24.
James, 66, has been attorney general since 2019 after becoming the first Black woman to be elected to statewide office in New York. She cruised to reelection in 2022 after abandoning a short-lived run for governor.
The indictment pertains to James’ purchase of a house in Norfolk, where she has family. During the sale, she signed a standard document called a “second home rider” in which she agreed to keep the property primarily for her “personal use and enjoyment for at least one year,” unless the lender agreed otherwise.
Rather than using the home as a second residence, the indictment alleges, James rented it out to a family of three. According to the indictment, the misrepresentation allowed James to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties.
In a post on X shortly after the indictment was handed up, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote, “One tier of justice for all Americans.”
“No one is above the law,” Halligan, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. “The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust. The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
As attorney general, James sued the Republican president and his administration dozens of times. Last year, she won a judgment against Trump and his companies in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements.
An appeals court overturned the fine, which had ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court’s finding that Trump had committed fraud.
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