Trump administration refers NY AG Letitia James for possible prosecution over allegations of mortgage fraud

Fox News16-04-2025

New York Attorney General Letitia James has been hit with shocking allegations by the Trump administration, accusing her of mortgage fraud.
In documents obtained by Fox News Channel's The Ingraham Angle, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, accusing James of mortgage fraud.
FHFA Director William Pulte said in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that James appears to have falsified records in order to meet certain lending requirements and receive favorable loan terms.
Pulte cited a property in Virginia that James allegedly claimed as her principal residence, and a property in New York that she claimed as a four-unit structure instead of five, which he said could mean she was able to get a different and more favorable loan.
Fox News contributor and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Ingraham the irony of James getting accused of falsifying records is "perfectly crushing."
"This is a person who prosecuted Trump for everything short of ripping a label off a mattress, and among the charges that were brought in New York, in just the civil but the criminal case, was making false or misleading statements to financial institutions," Turley said. "As for James, if we apply the Letitia James standard that she created, there'd be little question here. This seems pretty straightforward."
He explained that the Trump administration is saying this was not her principal residence because, as a New York elected official, she has to say her principal residence is in New York.
James is also accused of stating that her father is her husband in order to file as a married couple, Turley added.
"The Supreme Court just stated earlier in March, in a case called Thompson, that they want to see knowing false statements under sections like 10-14, not just misleading statements," Turley said. "These are misleading statements: either it's your principal residence or it's not. Either you're married to your father or he's your father."
The DOJ and James did not respond to Fox News on the matter.
The issue has been prosecuted in the past, but as Turley said on the Ingraham Angle, the "documents themselves are quite damning."
The New York Post reported that the documents show that the property James purchased with her father had both parties listed as "husband and wife" in 1983 and 2000.
"While this was a long time ago, it raises serious concerns about the validity of Ms. James representations on mortgage applications," Pulte reportedly wrote.
James brought forth a civil fraud suit against President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and its senior leadership in 2022, frequently sitting in the courtroom throughout the proceedings, and celebrated the prosecution of Trump in the Manhattan criminal trial over the 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump was ordered to pay a $454 million civil fraud judgment in James' lawsuit against him, which is currently on appeal.
So far in 2025, James has spearheaded at least five legal actions against the Trump administration, including leading a coalition of state attorneys general to sue the federal government to halt DOGE's access to the Treasury Department's internal systems, as well as another lawsuit related to the Trump admin slashing grant funding to research institutions and universities.

Hashtags

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Politico

4 minutes ago

Politico

House ordered back Wednesday

Hours after announcing his retirement, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis went to the Senate floor and slammed the GOP's plans for drastic Medicaid cuts — warning Republicans they are about to 'make a mistake on health care and betray a promise' if their sprawling domestic policy bill passes. 'It is inescapable this bill will betray the promise Donald Trump made,' Tillis said. 'I'm telling the president that you have been misinformed. You supporting the Senate mark will hurt people who are eligible and qualified for Medicaid.' Tillis, who opposed the bill on a procedural vote Saturday night and then announced Sunday he would not seek reelection, said he could not vote for the Senate's bill because of provisions that he said would kick some 663,000 residents of his state off their health care plans. He called on the Senate GOP to jettison its 'artificial' July 4 deadline and rewrite the bill. 'I respect President Trump, I support the majority of his agenda, but I don't bow to anybody when the people of North Carolina are at risk, and this puts them at risk,' Tillis told reporters after he left the floor. The two-term senator who has been known for working across the aisle said he had done his own research on how changes to so-called state directed payments and a new cap on medical providers taxes would affect his state — contacting state legislative leaders, the state's Democratic governor, Josh Stein and hospital groups. Tillis said he also talked to CMS Director Mehmet Oz and presented his findings that showed the best-case scenario was a $26 billion cut in federal support. 'After three different attempts for them to discredit our estimates, the day before yesterday they admitted that we were right,' Tillis said on the floor. 'They can't find a hole in my estimate.' In his remarks to reporters, he said Trump is 'getting a lot of advice from people who have never governed and all they've done is written white papers,' adding that he has 'people from an ivory tower driving him into a box canyon.' Tillis, who was elected to the Senate in 2014, compared Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' to the Affordable Care Act: 'The effect of this bill is to break a promise. And you know, the last time I saw a promise broken around health care, with respect to my friends on the other side of the aisle is when somebody said, 'If you like your health care, you can keep it.'' The Senate is now working through up to 20 hours of debate, before a marathon voting series of amendments scheduled to start Monday morning. Tillis said he might return to the floor to speak against the bill. Trump lambasted Tillis Saturday night after he voted against opening debate on the megabill, and Tillis said he'd already told Trump at that point he was likely to retire. 'Pretty much what I said on the floor is what I said to the president last night and I stand by it,' Tillis told reporters after the speech, adding later that he told the President he 'probably needed to start looking for a replacement.' 'I told him I want to help him,' Tillis added. 'I hope that we get a good candidate that I can help and we can have a successful 2026.'