The possibility is emerging that the attorney general of New York, Letitia James, could soon face two setbacks in her long-running feud with President Trump — a reversal of her $450 million fraud verdict against him and her indictment on federal criminal charges. 

With Mr. Trump in the White House, Attorney General Bondi contemplating an indictment, and a New York appellate court mulling whether Judge Arthur Engoron’s fraud judgement ought to stand, Ms. James is on the back foot. The summer could find her stripped of her signature victory and fighting to evade prison — a nightmare scenario. That’s not certain by any means, but it is possible. 

Earlier this month the amount owed by Mr. Trump for the fraud judgement surged past $500 million. Judge Engoron also appointed an independent monitor to chaperone the Trump Organization and barred the 47th president and his two adult sons from doing business in New York. Judge Engoron found that the misrepresentations perpetrated by Mr. Trump’s real estate empire “leap off the page and shock the conscience.”

Mr. Trump appealed that verdict — which he maintains was politically motivated — to the New York’s Appellate Division, First Department. That tribunal appeared skeptical of Judge Engoron’s ruling, with one judge calling it “immense” and “troubling.” Another ventured that the over-valuations of properties for which Mr. Trump was found guilty could be de rigeur in the real estate world in which he operated for decades.

The decision of the Appellate Division, First Department, could be handed down any day. The court could overrule Judge Engoron entirely, or shave millions of dollars off his judgment. Revisions to that judgment would likely amount to a setback for Ms. James, who has accused Mr. Trump of “mastering the art of the steal.” She also ran for attorney general vowing to shine “a bright light into every dark corner” of Mr. Trump’s real estate dealings.

Ms. James has also called Mr. Trump a “con man” and a “carnival barker,” while Mr. Trump for his part has asked on Truth Social: “How do I get a fair trial with a monster like ‘Attorney General’ Peekaboo James?”  He has also revoked her federal security clearance and barred her access to classified information. 

Even as Ms. James’s blow to Mr. Trump’s livelihood could be unwound at any moment, the prosecutor herself could face criminal charges from the Trump administration’s Department of Justice. That possibility surfaced with the criminal referral letter to Ms. Bondi from the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Mark Pulte. The letter accused Ms. James of three separate instances of fraud relating to documentation surrounding homes in Virginia and Brooklyn.

Ms. James’s office has retained a prominent defense attorney, Abbe Lowell — his clients include Hunter Biden as well as Jared and Ivanka Trump — to refute those charges, which he argues amount to a “revenge tour” built from “cherry-picked” evidence. Mr. Lowell calls Mr. Pulte’s criminal referral “three pages of stale, threadbare allegations with no reason to proceed.”

While Ms. Bondi has not yet indicated whether she intends to move on Mr. Pulte’s criminal referral, Ms. James’s record of litigating against Mr. Trump is already on her radar. The Weaponization Working Group convened by Ms. Bondi vows to probe “Federal cooperation with the weaponization by … New York Attorney General Letitia James, their respective staffs, and other New York officials to target President Trump, his family, and his businesses.”