US Attorney Resists Demands to Charge New York Attorney General Letitia James

A senior federal prosecutor in Virginia has told her colleagues that she does not believe there is legal grounds to pursue criminal mortgage fraud charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to a source acquainted with the situation.

The prosecutor, Elizabeth Yusi, who supervises significant prosecutions in the Norfolk office for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, plans to soon present her conclusion to Lindsey Halligan, a ally of the former president who was installed as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia recently.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia also ignored a request for comment.

Significant Clash Between Department of Justice and Trump

This case represents another major confrontation between the Justice Department and Trump, who has earlier fired attorneys who declined to prosecute his critics. Halligan, who lacks any prosecutorial experience, was appointed to the role after requests by Trump after her former office holder concluded there was no probable cause to file criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director.

Trump has openly called for the U.S. Attorney General to prosecute James, who spearheaded a civil fraud case against the president that resulted in a $500 million fine, though the judgment was subsequently thrown out by a New York state appellate court.

Housing Fraud Accusations and Probe

William Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency head and a dedicated Trump ally, made a legal complaint against James to the Justice Department in April, asserting she may have committed mortgage fraud. Pulte pointed to mortgage documents pertaining to a 2023 Norfolk, Virginia, home that James assisted in buying for her niece, in which James seemed to state on a document that she planned to occupy the home as her main home. James was acting as the Attorney General of New York at the time.

Prosecutors assembled a grand jury in May to examine the matter but had trouble building a case against James, even with pressure from Trump allies. Messages from the time of the home purchase and other mortgage documents reveal James explicitly stating that she did not intend for the home to be her primary residence. This evidence poses a challenge for prosecutors to prove that James deliberately falsified on the mortgage documents.

Recent Shake-Up in Prosecutorial Division

Multiple prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have faced termination or resigned in recent weeks as Trump has ramped up pressure on the office to bring charges against Comey and James.

Erik Siebert, Halligan’s predecessor, resigned on September 19 after facing pressure from Trump to file charges. Maya Song, a senior deputy to Siebert, was also dismissed in late September. Michael Ben’Ary, a top national security prosecutor in the office, was also fired last week after inaccurate accusations from a pro-Trump media personality.

“The leadership is more concerned with penalizing the President’s opponents than they are with safeguarding our national security,” he expressed in his departure note to colleagues.

“Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be dependent on what someone in the Department of Justice reads in their social media feed that day.”