Grand Jury Rejects DOJ’s Attempt to Re-indict NY AG Letitia James

A Virginia grand jury Thursday refused the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) attempt to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) on alleged mortgage fraud charges, MS NOW and ABC News report.

The rejection marks a major blow to the department’s push to prosecute James and other perceived enemies of President Donald Trump.

The DOJ failed to secure a second indictment just over a week after a federal court tossed its first case against James. A judge determined that the original indictment was illegitimate because Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully appointed acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. 

In September, Trump tapped Halligan, one of his former personal attorneys, to bring charges against James and former FBI director James Comey. Just days before Halligan’s appointment, the president had publicly ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to go after his political foes more aggressively.

The second time around, the DOJ again charged James in the Eastern District of Virginia. However, after Halligan’s disqualification, it wasn’t immediately clear who in the department sought the new charges.

Though its new attempt to indict James failed, the DOJ may again try to bring charges sometime in the future, according to MS NOW.

As in its previous case, the DOJ claimed James committed bank fraud and made false statements to a financial institution over a home she purchased in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2023. James pleaded not guilty to the charges in the previous case.

From the start, the DOJ’s cases against Comey and James were hampered by shaky evidence and procedural errors resulting from Halligan’s lack of prosecutorial experience.

If the DOJ does secure a new indictment against James in the future, many of those issues will likely crop up again, even without Halligan as the main prosecutor. James’ defense team could also file several of the same dismissal motions it raised in the previous case.

In November, James’ lawyers asked a court to throw out the previous charges, alleging that the DOJ violated her constitutional rights by prosecuting her based on Trump’s animus toward her and not actual criminal wrongdoing.

James also said the charges should be dismissed because Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, may have violated her rights — and potentially federal law — by illegally accessing some of her loan documents kept by government-backed mortgage enterprise Fannie Mae.

Career officials in the Eastern District of Virginia previously concluded that they lacked sufficient factual bases to pursue criminal cases against Comey and James. Some of these prosecutors — including Halligan’s predecessor — were subsequently fired or forced out of their roles for raising concerns about the cases.

After Trump appointed her as the acting top prosecutor in Virginia, Halligan personally presented the Comey and James cases before grand juries and was the only DOJ official to sign the indictments. That was highly unusual. Typically, career prosecutors present before grand juries and multiple DOJ officials sign off on indictments.

This story has been updated with additional details throughout.