DOJ refers New York attorney general for prosecution for mortgage fraud
By Chris Wade
The Center Square
The Trump administration is weighing potential federal criminal charges against New York Attorney General Leticia James over allegations she engaged in mortgage fraud.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice this week accusing James of committing fraud by listing a home in Virginia as her primary residence and identifying her father as her husband on federally backed mortgage loan applications to get a lower interest rate and more favorable terms.
In the letter, first reported by the New York Post, FHFA Director William Pulte claimed that James had "falsified records" just weeks before her civil fraud trial against Donald Trump and his family business on charges that he broke the law by inflating the values on his New York City properties.
That trial ended in a $454 million civil judgment against the Trump organization and several of its executives, which Trump is appealing.
Pulte said James is required under New York law to have a primary residence in the state even though her mortgage application list and intent to make the Norfolk, Va. property her primary home. He said the allegations have proven true and could be criminal charges, including wire fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
"It appears Ms. James's property and mortgage related misrepresentation continued to her recent 2003 Norfolk, Virginia property purchase in order to secure a lower interest rate and more favorable loan terms," he wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The referral letter also included documents showing James purchased another property in Brooklyn with her father as a cosigner but falsely identified him as her husband in mortgage filings as far back as 1983, the Post reported.
"While this was a long time ago, it raises serious concerns about the validity of Ms. James's representation on mortgage applications," Pulte wrote.
James's office responded with a statement defending her work as the state's top law-enforcement official and vowing to fight the Trump administration's allegations.
"Attorney General James is focused every single day on protecting New Yorkers, especially as this Administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law and the Constitution," the attorney general's office said in a statement. "She will not be intimidated by bullies — no matter who they are."
James, a Democrat first elected in 2018, has been a frequent critic of Trump and, in addition to the civil fraud trial, has filed several multistate lawsuits against the Trump administration over federal immigration policies, rollbacks in federal funding, and worker layoffs and other actions.