The political and legal fault lines in the United States deepened sharply on Thursday after New York Attorney General Letitia James — one of Donald Trump’s most prominent courtroom adversaries — was indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia on charges of mortgage fraud.
According to reports by CNN and The Washington Post, the 66-year-old attorney general is accused of facilitating a questionable property purchase for her niece in 2023. The indictment was announced Thursday in Alexandria, Virginia — the same jurisdiction where former FBI director James Comey, another Trump adversary, was charged earlier this week.
Both prosecutions are being spearheaded by Lindsey Halligan, the recently appointed US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and a close Trump ally. Halligan assumed the role after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, resigned earlier this year, reportedly citing insufficient evidence to pursue cases against either James or Comey.
The Washington Post reported that Halligan personally presented the case against James to the grand jury.
The indictment comes just weeks after President Trump publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to “act decisively” against political opponents including James, Comey, and others — a move critics view as part of an expanding campaign of retribution.
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James rose to national prominence in 2021 when she brought a sweeping civil fraud suit against Trump and the Trump Organization, accusing them of inflating property values to secure bank loans and insurance advantages. That case resulted in a $464 million judgment against the former president, later suspended on appeal while the core findings were upheld.
Trump has repeatedly targeted James, Comey, and other former officials such as Senator Adam Schiff and ex–National Security Advisor John Bolton, claiming they orchestrated “political witch hunts” against him.
Comey, 64, who led the FBI from 2013 until Trump dismissed him in 2017, has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructing Congress and making false statements during a 2020 Senate hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election. His trial has been scheduled for January 5, and he faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Comey’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, has vowed to seek dismissal of the case, calling it a “vindictive and selective prosecution.”
Since returning to office in January, Trump has taken sweeping actions against perceived adversaries — from reshuffling federal agencies and cutting ties with law firms involved in prior suits, to withdrawing funding from several universities he has accused of political bias.
James has yet to issue a public response to the indictment, but her allies describe the charges as a politically charged attempt to criminalize a sitting state attorney general who has long been a thorn in the president’s side.