Dem
47
GOP
53
NY AG Letitia James has sued Donald Trump dozens of times, sometimes with great success. She won a civil case against him in Feb. 2024 in which he was ordered to pay $450 million in penalties for lying about his wealth to defraud New York banks. Including interest, the amount Trump owes is now over half a billion dollars. The case has been on appeal for a year and a half. Maybe all the appellate judges have died and everyone has forgotten the case.
Except Trump. He is very much still aware of it and is now trying to exact revenge by going after James. The DoJ has issued a subpoena to her as part of an investigation about whether making him pay up for defrauding the banks violated his civil rights. After all, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees everyone, regardless of race, the right to defraud banks.
The case against James is being pursued by interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York John Sarcone. He worked for Trump's election team in the past. A panel of federal judges has refused to make Sarcone's appointment permanent.
There is one area where James is vulnerable. In 2023, she helped her niece buy a house in Virginia. She cosigned the mortgage application. There have been unverified media reports that she listed the house as her principal residence. If that turns out to be true, then in a sense, she has also defrauded a bank, which Trump will pursue to get her. This case is being prosecuted by Ed Martin, Trump's former nominee for U.S. Attorney for D.C. Martin was so obviously unqualified for that position that he was forced to withdraw because too many Republican senators saw him simply as a hit man for Trump. Then Trump appointed him a special prosecutor and sicced him on James. James has hired famed defense attorney Abbe Lowell to defend her. (V)