New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed a motion Friday seeking to dismiss the federal fraud charges brought against her by the Trump administration, making the ironic claim that the case stems from President Trump’s personal and political animus toward her.
“The government targeted AG James for prosecution because of the President’s genuine animus towards her protected campaign speech and fulfillment of her statutory obligations as New York Attorney General,” the motion reads, according to The Hill. “This indictment is the product of vindictive and selective prosecution, in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”
The 50-page motion outlines a series of comments President Trump has made about James, which her legal team argues amount to evidence of a “flagrantly unconstitutional” prosecution driven by personal animus.
The claims are laughable to critics who noted that, during her first campaign for attorney general in 2018, she literally ran on a platform to ‘get Trump.’ Also, her office prosecuted Trump for mortgage fraud, which she now stands accused of by the administration.
The motion references James’ 2022 civil fraud case against Trump — who was no longer in office at the time — and his business organization. In that case, a New York judge found Trump liable for fraud and ordered him to pay $354.8 million in penalties, representing what the court described as ill-gotten gains from loan savings and property sales. With interest, the total grew to more than $500 million before an appeals court overturned the fine in August, the outlet noted.
“This lawsuit, and AG James’ outspoken criticism of the President, triggered six years of targeted attacks,” James’s lawyers wrote in Friday‘s filing. “President Trump and his allies have used every insulting term in their vocabulary to deride AG James and call for criminal penalties in retaliation for the exercise of her rights and fulfillment of her statutory duties to fulfill her obligations as New York state’s attorney general.”
In directing the Department of Justice to look into Federal Housing Authority claims that James improperly gained better loan rates by misrepresenting her properties, the attorney general cited Trump’s use of words and phrases like “SCUM,” “a Complete and Total Disaster,” “racist,” “weak” and “a monster” to describe her. Her lawyers argued that the president‘s comments cannot be deemed “mere opinion or as condemnations of her alleged mortgage fraud.”
“The President and his allies have called for AG James’ prosecution for years, more fully evidenced by [U.S. Attorney General Pam] Bondi’s statement to the Senate Oversight Committee in response to a question about the President’s post directing her to charge AG James: ‘I don’t think he said anything that he hasn’t said for years,’” the filing added.
Her motion also referred to the charges against her as being “invidious and in bad faith,” and called the DOJ “too tainted with unconstitutional motivation to bring these charges fairly.”
At her Oct. 23 arraignment, New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty to federal charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. The charges stem from allegations that she misrepresented her intent to use a Virginia home as a secondary residence in order to secure more favorable loan terms.
Prosecutors allege that James instead rented the Norfolk, Va., property to a family of three, a move that the indictment says saved her nearly $19,000.
One week before appearing in federal court, James vowed to fight the Department of Justice’s case against her, calling the charges politically motivated.