Letitia James Faces Fresh Legal Peril as Trump Officials Make New Criminal Referrals Designed To Avoid Previous Achilles Heel

The filing of two new criminal referrals by a Trump Administration housing official against New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, to the Department of Justice underscores that the Trump Administration is undeterred in its quest to prosecute the prosecutor, and has learned from its mistakes. This second batch of referrals, like the first one, comes from the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte. He is an heir to the eponymous homebuilding empire founded by his father. MS Now first reported that these fresh referrals allege insurance fraud by Ms. James.This time Mr. Pulte sent his accusations to two United States attorneys appointed by President Trump — Jason Reding Quinones of the Southern District of Florida and Andrew Boutros of the Northern District of Illinois. The dossiers allege that Ms. James lied in home insurance filings with Universal Property Insurance and Allstate Insurance Company, which are based in Illinois and Florida, respectively.By linking Ms. James’ alleged crimes to insurers based in Florida and Illinois, Mr. Pulte is seeding the prosecutions where there are constitutionally appointed — meaning Senate-confirmed — federal prosecutors who were tapped by Mr. Trump. Mr. Reding Quinones has been confirmed by the Senate and Mr. Boutros – who is officially an interim appointee – has been approved by a district court. Should these prosecutors seek to indict Ms. James, it will be difficult for her to claim they are illegitimate, as she did successfully with interim U.S. attorneys that were going after her in Virginia and upstate New York. Mr. Pulte writes to Mr. Boutros, the prosecutor in Illinois, that “It appears Ms. James made representations that the house would be occupied by a single adult, with no children. Instead, according to the post, she knew the house was actually occupied by four people — three children and her niece.” In the one directed to Florida, he declares that it “appears Ms. James made false representations that her property would be unoccupied five months out of the year. The house was, in fact, occupied year-round by her niece.”The properties in question are located in Virginia and New York, respectively. Mr. Pulte has already tried that path to a trial in April, when he referred Ms. James for prosecution for alleged misrepresentations regarding those same properties. In June, the acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, charged Ms. James with two counts of mortgage fraud based on loan documents linked to her Norfolk home.That indictment followed days after a public demand to Attorney General Bondi from Mr. Trump where he asked “What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.” Ms. Halligan charged the former FBI director James Comey with lying to Congress.Ms. Halligan’s cases against Ms. James and Mr. Comey were troubled from the start, but eventually collapsed after a federal judge found that the acting prosecutor had been unlawfully appointed by Ms. Bondi. The DOJ subsequently convened two further grand juries to reindict Ms. James, but both declined to hand up charges. That makes these referrals the fourth effort to set a course toward a conviction. The DOJ has appealed Ms. Halligan’s disqualification. A date for oral arguments has yet to be set.Ms. James has proclaimed her innocence. Her lawyer, Abbe Lowell — who has become a go-to attorney for adversaries of the 47th president — says in a statement after this latest round of referrals that “Trump and his political enablers keep abusing their power to pursue a vendetta against her by trying to rename, refile, and repeat baseless allegations.” Mr. Lowell previously characterized the case against his client as “cherry-picked” and “threadbare.”Both of the prosecutors who received Mr. Pulte’s referrals this time are duly installed, which means the government will avoid a repeat of the disqualification morass that has plagued the DOJ’s prior prosecutions. Ms. Bondi may still have reason for concern, as prosecutors failed to convince subsequent grand juries on similar facts to the one now adduced by Mr. Pulte. The decision to prosecute will be that of Ms. Bondi — who s supported the previous prosecutions of Ms. James — to make. The enmity between Ms. James and Mr. Trump is longstanding. During her 2018 campaign she vowed to “shine a bright light” into his business dealings. When she won, she declared with respect to Mr. Trump: “We here in New York — and I, in particular — we are not scared of you.” She has also called him an “illegitimate” president. In 2022 Ms. James filed a sweeping civil fraud lawsuit against Mr. Trump, his two adult sons, and his business, accusing them of misstating property values to banks and insurers in order to receive more favorable loan and insurance terms. The Trumps denied wrongdoing and said they were being politically targeted.The judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, ultimately decided on Mr. Trump’s liability for what he called “pervasive” fraud without even convening a jury. He imposed a penalty that eventually ballooned, with interest, to more than $500 million. So gargantuan was that penalty, though, that a New York State intermediate appellate court found that it violated the Constitution’s prohibition on “excessive” fines. The underlying finding of liability, though, was left intact.Both Mr. Trump and Ms. James have appealed that ruling. The appeals court appeared skeptical of not only the size of the judgment that Judge Engoron imposed but also of his framing of the case as fraudulent, with one jurist instead likening the underlying facts to a “commercial dispute.” The case’s ultimate merits, though, will be decided by the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court.

Letitia James Faces Fresh Legal Peril as Trump Officials Make New Criminal Referrals Designed To Avoid Previous Achilles Heel

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