{"id":23099,"date":"2025-11-16T20:14:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T20:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=23099"},"modified":"2025-11-16T20:14:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T20:14:49","slug":"letitia-james-laughingly-claims-trump-admins-prosecution-is-vindictive-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=23099","title":{"rendered":"Letitia James Laughingly Claims Trump Admin\u2019s Prosecution Is \u2018Vindictive\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\"\"
\u00a0Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

This article may contain commentary
\nwhich reflects the author’s opinion.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2019s personal and political animus toward her.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/div>\n

\u201cThe government targeted AG James for prosecution because of the President\u2019s genuine animus towards her protected campaign speech and fulfillment of her statutory obligations as New York Attorney General,\u201d the motion reads,\u00a0according to The Hill<\/a>. \u201cThis indictment is the product of vindictive and selective prosecution, in violation of the Fifth Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cflagrantly unconstitutional\u201d prosecution driven by personal animus.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/div>\n

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 \u2018get Trump.\u2019 Also, her office prosecuted Trump for mortgage fraud, which she now stands accused of by the administration.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The motion references James\u2019 2022 civil fraud case against Trump \u2014 who was no longer in office at the time \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis lawsuit, and AG James\u2019 outspoken criticism of the President, triggered six years of targeted attacks,\u201d James\u2019s lawyers wrote in Friday\u2018s filing. \u201cPresident 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\u2019s attorney general.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s use of words and phrases like \u201cSCUM,\u201d \u201ca Complete and Total Disaster,\u201d \u201cracist,\u201d \u201cweak\u201d and \u201ca monster\u201d to describe her. Her lawyers argued that the president\u2018s comments cannot be deemed \u201cmere opinion or as condemnations of her alleged mortgage fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President and his allies have called for AG James\u2019 prosecution for years, more fully evidenced by [U.S. Attorney General Pam] Bondi\u2019s statement to the Senate Oversight Committee in response to a question about the President\u2019s post directing her to charge AG James: \u2018I don\u2019t think he said anything that he hasn\u2019t said for years,’\u201d the filing added.<\/p>\n

Her motion also referred to the charges against her as being \u201cinvidious and in bad faith,\u201d and called the DOJ \u201ctoo tainted with unconstitutional motivation to bring these charges fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

One week before appearing in federal court, James vowed to fight the Department of Justice\u2019s case against her, calling the charges politically motivated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Getty Images This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed a motion Friday seeking to dismiss the federal fraud charges … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23100,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23099\/revisions\/23100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}