Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, was charged Thursday in the Eastern District of Virginia with bank fraud and making false statements in connection with her 2020 Norfolk home purchase.
According to federal authorities, James rented out the house to save roughly $19,000 in expenses while falsely representing it as a secondary residence in order to obtain better mortgage conditions. The charges are related to allegations that she misrepresented her residences in Brooklyn and Virginia on loan and property records.
U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan filed the indictment and personally presented evidence to a grand jury in order to bring the case. James could spend up to 30 years in jail on each count and pay fines of more than $1 million if found guilty on both charges.
James vowed to forcefully defend her record and denounced the accusation as “political retribution” by the Trump administration. Later this month, she is expected to appear in court.
The action is one of the most dramatic court disputes between a prominent Democratic leader and federal prosecutors to date. A trend of recent instances involving public personalities who had previously contested the Trump organization is likewise followed by the indictment.