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NY Attorney General Letitia James. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
3:17 PM – Thursday, October 9, 2025

New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on Thursday by a federal grand jury in Virginia on fraud charges.

The indictment includes counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a lending institution related to her claim that a Virginia property was a secondary residence, according to Reuters.

The investigation was reportedly initiated following a referral from Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who stated that James had falsified information to secure more favorable mortgage terms.

Prosecutors say that James misrepresented her primary residence status on mortgage documents for a property she purchased in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2023. They argue that she inaccurately claimed the Norfolk property as her primary residence, which affected the loan rate she received.

Prosecutors are also scrutinizing her Brooklyn brownstone and how she represented her relationship to her father on official documents. Mortgage documents from 1983 and 2000 allegedly listed James and her father as “husband and wife.” These documents were reportedly signed by James, then in her mid-20s, and her father, Robert James, during property transactions in Queens and Brooklyn.

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In mortgage applications, lenders often request information about family connections for purposes such as verifying residency, co-signing, or assessing financial background. Misrepresenting these details could be considered a material falsehood under federal law — forming the basis for the “making false statements to a financial institution” portion of the indictment.

Nonetheless, James has publicly denied all allegations, describing them as “baseless” and politically motivated. Her legal team argues that any discrepancies were inadvertent and “corrected promptly,” claiming that there was no intent to defraud lenders.

“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York state attorney general,” James said in a recorded statement on Thursday.

The prosecution in James’ case is being handled by Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump lawyer now serving as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

James previously brought a civil fraud case against President Donald Trump and his company in 2022, alleging financial misstatements to lenders and insurers. That case resulted in a $454.2 million penalty, though it was later overturned on appeal in August this year.

Each of the charges James faces carries a potential sentence of up to 30 years in prison. However, legal experts have noted that proving intent to defraud remains a high hurdle for federal prosecutors.

UPDATE / CORRECTION — 10/9/25 — 3:59 P.M. PT: Additional charges against James were included in the article. Initial reports, citing sources, had falsely claimed that she faced only one count of mortgage fraud.

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