Top Democrats urge dismissal of New York attorney general's 'vindictive' mortgage fraud indictment

NORFOLK, Va. (CN) — Congressional Democratic leadership joined former federal judges and Justice Department senior officials Friday inurging the dismissal of a “vindictive” mortgage fraud indictment against New York’s Attorney General Letitia James.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries filed a brief in support of Letitia James’s motion to dismiss the indictment for vindictive and selective prosecution. James, accused of using falsified records to secure favorable loans on a Norfolk home she bought in 2023, faces a January trial.

“President Donald Trump’s public effort to punish and silence those he perceives as critics and adversaries is without modern precedent in this country,” the leaders said in their support brief. “The president’s use of the criminal justice system to punish AG James for conduct within the scope of her elected office and on behalf of her constituents is a flagrant violation of AG James’s constitutional rights.”

Schumer and Jeffries did not join the professors, former judges and Justice Department officials who filed briefs supporting former FBI Director James Comey, whom the government accuses of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. Democrats have long blamed Comey’s 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server as a major factor in Donald Trump’s victory.

James, a Democrat, has been an outspoken critic of Trump since his first presidential term. She later accused him in his second term of using the executive branch as part of a “revenge tour” to target political opponents. James became one of Trump’s top foes after winning a civil fraud case against his business empire, which found he inflated financial statements to appear wealthier to banks, insurers and the media.

“Letitia James, has been the subject of years of public attacks by the president, based both on James’s speech while campaigning for the office of New York’s Attorney General, and also on the civil investigations and lawsuits that she brought against the president and his family business while serving in that role,” a group of more than 100 former senior officials of the Justice Department said in their support brief. “Based on all publicly available evidence, the indictment of this defendant appears to have been the product not of the neutral Judgment of an impartial prosecutor, but rather an expression of retributive animus by the president.”

The government has yet to file a response to James’s motion, but it did file a response briefto Comey’s motion, arguing that Comey failed to produce direct evidence of a vindictive motive.

“The societal interests in this prosecution are readily apparent and overwhelming,” the government wrote. “The defendant is a former FBI Director who lied to Congress about his conduct while at the helm of

the nation’s primary federal law-enforcement agency."

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan secured an indictment against James in early October, alleging she bought a three-bedroom home in 2020 with a $109,600 loan from Old Virginia Mortgage Company that required her to occupy and use the property as a second residence. Prosecutors say her grandniece and her children occupy the dwelling.

At a hearing Thursday in Alexandria, Virginia, attorneys for Comey and James sought to dismiss their indictments, arguing Halligan’s appointment was rushed and invalid. Both indictments were signed solely by Halligan after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, declined to pursue the cases.

James faces two charges, bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, each punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

“If the neutrality of prosecutors is undermined, or even appears to be undermined, the public will be unable to rely upon the courts to do justice, rather than to be used as a tool to carry out the political or personal whims of those who hold office,” a group of bipartisan group of former United States federal judges and United States Attorneys said in their supportbrief. “Political prosecutions have no place in the courts of the United States.”

A group of professors who study democratic backsliding in other nations submitted a brief in support of James, comparing her prosecution to that of political prosecutions in different countries.

“One common way leaders with autocratic tendencies increase their authority is by asserting control over government institutions that have previously been insulated from political influence, including law enforcement and the judiciary,” the professors wrote. “Once they have assumed control over these formerly independent state institutions, they capitalize on that authority by prosecuting political opponents and individuals who attempt to hold the regime accountable for unlawful behavior.”

U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker, a Joe Biden appointee, will hold a hearing on the dismissal motion on Dec. 5.

“Our nation’s founders rebelled against the crown in no small part to end its arbitrary use of criminal sanctions to silence dissent and punish political enemies,” the leaders said in their brief.