The heckling of New York’s embattled attorney general, Letitia James, at a community event at Westchester — “Apologize to Donald Trump for wasting millions of dollars in the state of New York,” was the cry — could be the least of Ms. James’s worries as a criminal case against her builds steam.

That protester was escorted out of the meeting, but the criminal probe opened against Ms. James by the Federal Bureau of Investigations will not be so easy to dismiss. The investigation underscores that Attorney General Bondi is prepared to act on the criminal referral against Ms. James issued by the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte, the Pulte Homes heir. 

The referral alleges that Ms. James “has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire government backed assistance and loans and more favorable loan terms.” Ms. James on Thursday called those allegations “baseless,” but her office has hired one of America’s premier defense attorneys, Abbe Lowell, to represent her. 

Ms. James’ legal team is already arguing that the allegations are petty, “cherrypicked,” and motivated by revenge. That, though, was precisely the argument made by President Trump’s legal team when Ms. James found ways to sue his companies for mortgage fraud. 

Democrats in New York, though, are lining up behind Ms. James. A new budget bill out of Albany, the New York Post reports, aims to set aside some $10 million for elected officials to use for their legal defense when the case is related to the official’s duties. 

The draft bill does not name Ms. James, but appears intended to put taxpayers on the hook for her lawyering up. Mr. Lowell’s client list includes Hunter Biden, Jared and Ivanka Trump, and Senator Edwards. He made his name as a media-savvy young lawyer for House Democrats during the Clinton impeachment.

Mr. Lowell has already begun to work — and, presumably, begun to bill. He responded to Mr. Pulte’s criminal referral with a three-page letter denouncing what he called Mr. Trump’s “revenge tour” and his administration’s “threadbare”  accusations against his client. Mr. Lowell issued a statement on Thursday calling the focus on Ms. James “political retribution.” 

Those allegations against Ms. James, though, appear to be robust enough that, as part of the DOJ’s criminal probe, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has issued subpoenas over a mortgage application that Ms. James made in Virginia to buy a home that she legally attested would be her primary residence. The modest house, in the port city of Norfolk, is occupied by Ms. James’s niece, according to her office. When the Post visited Norfolk last month, neighbors said they’d never seen Ms. James. New York law mandates that she live in the Empire State.

Mr. Pulte’s referral explains that “primary residence mortgages receive more favorable loan terms, including lower interest rates, than secondary residence mortgages.” Lying on a loan application to obtain favorable terms is exactly with what Ms. James charged the Trumps in civil court. 

A former Democratic state’s attorney at Baltimore, Marilyn Mosby, was last year convicted under the same statute that Mr. Pulte alleges Ms. James violated. Ms. Mosby, who tried and failed to prosecute six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, was sentenced to a year’s home confinement, and is appealing.

Mr. Lowell contends that Mr. Pulte is ignoring another document that Ms. James sent to her mortgage loan broker saying that the Norfolk property “WILL NOT be my primary residence.” Mr. Lowell’s position is that Ms. James was merely helping her niece, Shamice Thompson-Hairston, make a downpayment. 

Mr. Pulte also accuses Ms. James of misrepresenting the number of units in a brownstone at Brooklyn that she has owned since 2021, and of listing her father as her husband on another purchase — all for more favorable loan terms.

On Tuesday in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump called Ms. James “a disaster for New York. She’s a horrible, horrible human being, and I think she’s a total crook, there’s no question about it — but that’s just my opinion.” He said in respect of Ms. Bondi: “Pam’s gonna have to do what she wants.”  

Ms. James has called Mr. Trump a “carnival barker” and a “con man.” In addition to her work to bring down the Trump Organization, she has led multiple efforts by Democratic state attorneys general to block his administration’s agenda.  

Mr. Trump appealed the $500 million judgement in the fraud case against him, and the appellate court appeared sympathetic to his case for reversal during oral arguments in September. The president’s attorneys call the verdict “draconian, unlawful, and unconstitutional,” and one appellate judge, Peter Moulton, worried aloud that the “immense penalty in this case is troubling.”