Inside a federal courthouse in Virginia on Friday, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully prosecuted a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump for defrauding bankers about his net worth so he could secure better loan terms, pleaded not guilty to allegations of bank fraud and making false statements.
The charges against James were brought after the president first publicly demanded U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi pursue James as well as other longtime Trump critics, including former FBI Director James Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Comey was indicted in September and pleaded not guilty; Schiff has not yet been indicted but has been under investigation for alleged mortgage fraud by the Trump Justice Department since August. NBC reported on Thursday, however, that the investigation into Schiff has stalled and that sources say there simply isn’t enough credible information to prosecute the senator.
As for James, the charges against her only came after a Trump-appointed prosecutor in Virginia, Erik Siebert, was pushed out from his role in September, reportedly because he did not believe the case against Comey or James was strong enough. He was replaced with Trump’s onetime personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan, who has zero prosecutorial experience. So far, it shows: In addition to a profoundly atypical handling of the Comey indictment before a grand jury, this week, Halligan exposed herself to renewed scrutiny after she initiated a text message exchange with a legal journalist on Signal that reportedly “touched on grand jury matters” — a massive no-no that could potentially jeopardize the administration’s case.
