After the former director of the FBI, another Donald Trump mania was accused this Thursday, October 9: the attorney general of the state of New York, Letitia James, who had obtained her conviction in 2024 in a vast fraud case.
She was indicted by a federal jury in Virginia, the same state where a judicial process was initiated against former federal police chief James Comey. On several occasions, the American president had asked his Department of Justice to also prosecute Letitia James.
The facts affecting the judge, elected by the Democratic Party, refer to a house she owns in Norfolk (Virginia), which she allegedly falsely declared as her primary residence in the mortgage loan documents, which would have allowed her to obtain more favorable conditions.
The latter immediately denounced “political retaliation.” “We will vigorously fight these baseless accusations” and “I will continue to do my job,” he also wrote.
“This is what tyranny looks like,” responded Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
“What we see today is nothing more than the use of the Department of Justice to punish those who hold the powerful accountable,” said New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat.
At the origin of the fraud lawsuit against Trump
For several weeks, Donald Trump has been pressuring his Justice Department to obtain indictments against some of his political opponents. And Letitia James is one of them: she is at the origin of the fraud proceedings initiated against him and his two sons, Donald and Eric Jr.
The three were found guilty of having colossally inflated the value of the Trump Organization’s assets – its skyscrapers, luxury hotels and golf courses around the world – in the 2010s to benefit from more favorable bank loans and better insurance terms.
At the end of a highly publicized trial in 2024, Donald Trump was sentenced to a massive fine of $464 million.
Last August, a New York state appeals court overturned the fine, citing an “excessive” amount that violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits disproportionate sentences.
The president has repeatedly said that Letitia James should be prosecuted and called the African-American judge “corrupt” and “racist.”
Without “list” of objectives, defends the president
In late September, Virginia U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert resigned after refusing to prosecute Letitia James. Donald Trump then appointed one of his close friends, Lindsey Halligan, to replace him, citing the need for a “tough prosecutor” to help his Attorney General.
Donald Trump denies having a “list” of objectives. The truth is that he has identified a series of personalities, elected officials, former advisors or magistrates, guilty, according to him, of all types of embezzlement, but above all of having opposed him.
The American president thus threatened billionaire philanthropist George Soros. He publicly called for prosecuting Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, as he did with Letitia James. Another cause for concern for Donald Trump, his former national security advisor, John Bolton, saw the FBI search his home.
The American president also attacked Barack Obama, accused of “treason.” But any attempt to bring him to justice could clash with a principle of presidential immunity recently established by the Supreme Court, at the request of Donald Trump himself.
Source: BFM TV
