New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted Thursday on trumped-up charges because she had the audacity to go after the President.
Trump’s henchmen, more commonly referred to as the Justice Department who have been going after Trump’s political enemies, claim that James committed bank fraud and issued “false statements to a financial institution in connection with a home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020,” Associated Press reports.
A former Trump aide named Lindsey Halligan who is now the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, presented the case to the grand jury just weeks after being given the position.
“The indictment, two weeks after a separate criminal case charging former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress, is the latest indication of the Trump administration’s norm-busting determination to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to pursue the president’s political foes and public figures who once investigated him,” AP reports.
James called the indictment “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”
“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties,” she added.
AP notes that both Comey and James were indicted under shady conditions. Last month, the Trump administration got rid of Erik Siebert, the veteran prosecutor who looked into both investigations and refused pressure to file charges. Siebert was replaced with Halligan, a White House aide who once had a job as a lawyer but has never worked as a federal prosecutor.
“We are deeply concerned that this case is driven by President Trump’s desire for revenge,” Abbe Lowell, James’ lawyer said in a statement. When a President can publicly direct charges to be filed against someone — when it was reported that career attorneys concluded none were warranted — it marks a serious attack on the rule of law. We will fight these charges in every process allowed in the law.”
James is scheduled to make an initial appearance in the federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, on Oct. 24.
