CNN: We have just learned that Letitia James has just been indicted by the DOJ
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This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.
I am not fearful — I am fearless.
We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights..— New York Attorney General Letitia James (@newyorkstateag.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 5:36 PM
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Because lèse-majesté is (inexplicably to TrumpWorld) not included in the federal criminal codes…
BREAKING: Letitia James has been indicted on one count of bank fraud in Virginia, charge brought directly by Lindsey Halligan, just like the Comey indictment.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 4:46 PM
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Kind of an odd thing that Trump doesn't realize that bullshit cases that die in court against his political foes just raise those foes visibility by significant amounts
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Per the Washington Post, “Letitia James becomes the second Trump foe charged in a case that career prosecutors had turned down” [gift link]:
The Justice Department obtained an indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday, accusing her of committing mortgage fraud when she purchased a property in Virginia.
The indictment on one count of bank fraud and one of making a false statement makes James the second of President Donald Trump’s political foes to be charged in the Eastern District of Virginia since Trump pushed out the top prosecutor there and appointed a close ally, Lindsey Halligan, to replace him. Halligan, who had no previous experience as a prosecutor, obtained an indictment two weeks ago against former FBI director James B. Comey on charges of making a false statement to Congress. He has pleaded not guilty.
Halligan presented the case against James to a grand jury in Alexandria. It is unusual for a politically appointed top U.S. attorney to present a case herself, suggesting that the office struggled to find a career attorney willing to take on the assignment.
A senior career attorney in the office indicated to her staff in recent days that she believed the case was weak and did not want to present it to a grand jury, according to two people familiar with the internal conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. That attorney had also worked to insulate her subordinates from the case so that they, too, would not have to present the case, those people said.
The previous U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, was ousted last month because he believed there was insufficient evidence to present the cases against Comey and James to grand juries…
U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker, a Biden judicial appointee, was chosen by random selection to handle the case. James, who was not arrested, was summoned to appear in court in Norfolk on Oct. 24.
Trump has long referred to James as a political foe. In her 2018 campaign for attorney general, she pledged to pursue litigation against Trump whom she called an “embarrassment.” In 2022, she brought a civil fraud case against Trump and his real estate empire which, two years later, resulted in a judge ordering Trump and his company to pay more than $350 million in fines and interest. In August, a New York appeals court voided the fine but left intact the judge’s finding that Trump and others in his company had committed fraud…
Currently leading CNN homepage:
— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 6:08 PM
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Read the indictment returned against New York AG Letitia James, via @lawfaremedia.org:
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26…— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
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I’ve never seen anything remotely this petty charged as bank fraud.
— Popehat Agitates And Irritates (@kenwhite.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 6:11 PM
/2 Also note that this key paragraph characterizes the agreement rather than quoting it, an odd choice in this context. Seems skeevy.
— Popehat Agitates And Irritates (@kenwhite.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
/3 Also note that the indictment claims she rented the property but not that she entered into an agreement that REQUIRED her to rent the property, which seems to be what is prohibited by the paraphrased language.
— Popehat Agitates And Irritates (@kenwhite.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 6:22 PM
MazeDancer
Voting for Tish James was a big smile. Knew she would be great.
Tonight, I was so sad. Do not want America to die.
But Ms. James video lifted me up.
There are tens of millions of people who fiercely do not want America to die. What is Trump going to do? Lock us all up?
Watched MSNBC and there were plenty of good people on with their hair on fire.
And now a judge has blocked sending the National Guard to Illinois. There is some hope.
Ishiyama
The indictment says that she was prohibited from renting the property, and that she subsequently rented the property. I don’t know enough to say if she actually was prohibited from renting the property. But that’s the central allegation.
HeleninEire
This absolute asshole. Yeah I’m out. In March I will get my pension. Going back to Dublin.
It’s been a horrible few weeks for me and my family.
lowtechcyclist
It’s like a variation on the Streisand effect.
Jeffro
bigger picture? In the words of Kay, we really need to talk about the low-quality hires (that are taking up the trump vengeance agenda here, there, and everywhere)
I’m sure brighter minds than mind in the Dem leadership are on it, and I know voters as a whole don’t *usually* pay attention to such things but MY GOD.
Hegseth. RFK Jr. Noem. Duffy. Homan. Miller. Vought.
And now Halligan. So many folks who couldn’t get an entry-level job in any normal administration (or McDonalds, no offense to McDonalds)
lowtechcyclist
Great pic of AG James there from CNN – “looking like a queen without a crown” to quote Dylan
me
The Onion has posted their Epstein Documentary on Youtube. youtube.com/watch?v=XjhSoGcQhWU
Melancholy Jaques
@Jeffro:
And that asshole and they all know it. It’s why they’re hired and why they’re so obedient.
Nukular Biskits
@lowtechcyclist:
Don’t read anything into this (and definitely don’t say anything to Ms. Biskits ’cause she might get the wrong idea!) but when I saw this in your post:
I immediately thought of this line from Gordon Lightfoot’s Sundown:
MagdaInBlack
@Jeffro: I think we should be thankful that these people are so incompetent.
iKropoclast
I learned some new French today.
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
That’s about when I stopped listening to Gordon because his songs got so damned depressing.
counterfactual
OT: According to Axios, Rafael Cruz is bitching about the Columbus Square fountain by Union Station in the District of Columbia, saying it was neglected by “Democrat” administrations. He wants it transferred to DoT instead of Interior (but doesn’t say how that magically supplies funding for restoring it.
Any DC locals want to catch up this guy in flyover country?
MagdaInBlack
@counterfactual: This is what he’s doing with his time off? Worrying about a fountain?
Ohio Mom
@HeleninEire: Wait, is there something that is specifically awful for your family? I am sorry to hear this.
One of the things that confuses me is that I know terrible, horrible, devastating things are happening, I know nothing will be able to be anywhere near reversed or corrected in my lifetime, the reverberations have not yet reached me (well, except for much higher grocery bills), and yet — my life is the same as it was. I’m in a bubble of midwestern suburbia. It’s discombobulating.
Nukular Biskits
@lowtechcyclist:
You must be an old.
iKropoclast
This makes me curious. Does the fountain depict anything or have any sort of noteworthy dedication?
WaterGirl
@Ohio Mom: Helen let us know that last week that her sister, Mary, passed away.
Ohio Mom
@WaterGirl: Oh, I am so sorry. I know Mary was very important to Helen.
laura
That miserable, petty, hollow bitch. Wearing his inadequacies on his gaping sleeves. Just the biggest shite-bag of grievance and worthlessness and self-loathing disguised as grandeur.
In conclusion, fuck that guy.
counterfactual
@iKropoclast: It has a statue of Christopher Columbus, so the usual suspects are claiming cancel culture.
Baud
I don’t know anything about the facts, but the regular DOJ attorney didn’t think they had a case, so I assume they don’t have a case.
la_caterina
@Ishiyama: Read paragraphs 6 and 7 of the indictment. She was not prohibited from renting the property, she was prohibited from entering into a timesharing or other agreement which would require her to rent the property. 2 different things.
MagdaInBlack
@iKropoclast: What axios briefly allowed me to read tells me he is sucking up to trump by offering up a bill called ” Make Christopher Columbus Circle Fountain Great Again Act.” Because trump wants Columbus Day back or some dumb thing like that.
MCCCFGA
iKropoclast
@counterfactual: Eh, that can decay with his image. I wish I learned in elementary school what I learned in university about him.
ETA:
Pronounced McKifga
p.a.
My guess that there’s not a lot of alumni magazines firing up their “Our Grads in the tRump Admin” articles.
Except Liberty U
dww4
@MagdaInBlack: Absolutely true. All my Trump voting relatives and friends are strangely silent. The blatant breaking of norms and the outright politicization of the Justice Department will hopefully get a critical mass of them to join with us to bring this administration down sooner than later. Cause the monied elite and the for profit media ain’t gonna step up and do the right thing.
Ishiyama
@la_caterina: Right. I checked some other sources, and the prohibition only means she can’t give someone else control over the rental decisions, it permits “short-term rentals”.
One has to be an idiot to think that will support the charges.
oldgold
How is targeting political enemies for loan audits different from targeting political enemies for tax audits?
p.a.
@dww4: We just need them to stay home I think/hope.
dww4
@p.a.: well some will no doubt stay home but I want a good number to do the right thing …. publicly renounce Trumpism and vote for a Democrat. I and the country have earned this.
la_caterina
@Ishiyama: Exactly. My money is on a successful motion to dismiss before the case even makes it to trial.
Nix Besser
@la_caterina: I fully expect the case to be dismissed, but just as the Comey case will, it will be dismissed for selective and vindictive prosecution
Tubby is messing with the wrong lawyer here.
Suzanne
@HeleninEire: Many, many hugs. I hope for peace, comfort, and support for you and your family.
zhena gogolia
What happened to Cole’s thread?
TONYG
@lowtechcyclist: Yeah. So now millions of people who otherwise would have never heard of Tish James will know who she is. Smart move, Donnie. As for the “substance” of the case — I’m pretty sure that any normal (non-Maga) citizen will not view a paperwork mistake (if there was one) as a serious crime. Trump is making the mistake that dictators have been making for centuries. He actually believes the normal people love him and will obey him.
Suzanne
@Jeffro: My first job was at McDonald’s (which is why I have the sweet and friendly personality for which you all know me), These incompetent pieces of shit wouldn’t make it through an evening shift.
IANAL, but it seems like those who are believe that Tish James will have a good outcome. Fingers crossed for her.
MagdaInBlack
@zhena gogolia: It went *POOF
Suzanne
FYI, I cried once at my McJob. People are assholes.
Craig
@MagdaInBlack: I had written the perfect comment on cars. Poof, and now it’s gone, like tears in rain.
SpaceUnit
If I was the judge I would be extremely pissed that someone was trying to use my courtroom for this sort of petty and vindictive prosecutorial malfeasance.
I’m guessing the defense will immediately move to dismiss, but if I was the judge I wouldn’t right away. I’d demand that the prosecution make their case. And if it’s the sham we know it is I’d slap them with contempt of court. I think that would send a message.
But of course I’m not a lawyer and don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about.
Martin
@zhena gogolia: Yeeted into the mustard dimension.
TONYG
@Suzanne: Part-time and summer teenage jobs teach a person a lot. Somebody like Donald Trump has never had a real job in his life, so he never learned those lessons.
sab
@Jeffro: The amazing thing is that apparently Halligan made partner in her Florida firm, and in only five years. I wonder if they will want her back when this is all over.
zhena gogolia
@Craig: Me too!
planetjanet
@counterfactual: There is currently a tent city of anti-Trump protesters by the fountain. They are peaceful.
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
I’m not old, I’ve just been around a long time. :-)
sab
?lawrence O’Donnell broughat up last night that Comey’s lawyer is challenging Halligan’s legitimacy as a US attorney since not put through the proper procedures for appointment (Senate confirmation or temporary promotion from within the DOJ). That will be decided by some judge other than the trial judge.
lowtechcyclist
@planetjanet:
And Cruz wouldn’t give a damn about that part of the city if there weren’t protesters there.
Now that I think about it, there probably isn’t a single part of DC outside the Capitol and the White House that he’d give a damn about, absent a political motivation.
JaySinWa
Time will tell whether it works or not, but the petty prosecutions are loss leaders in Trumps mind. It’s like the cop saying “you can beat the wrap but you won’t beat the ride” It doesn’t matter that they are losing cases at trial. The very fact that they can bring weak cases against prominent people and force them to spend time and money fighting them acts as a deterrent to others as well as scratching Trump’s vengeance itch. And it gives them talking points for people who only get headlines and sound bites.
Trumps pressuring Zelensky to announce an investigation of Biden and then his people would do the rest was a similar attempt. It didn’t matter that nothing would come of it legally.
The blatant illegal arrest of protestors is another way of keeping people away and give headlines about the “criminal protesters”.
It is the literal weaponization of the justice system.
NaijaGal
@JaySinWa:
If it elevates the indicted person, gives them national exposure and support that they might not otherwise have had, and improves their trajectory/future in politics, it’s probably a mistake on his part.
JaySinWa
@NaijaGal: That may well be true for the individual targeted and still detrimental to democracy and the country as a whole. And there is no guarantee that these benefits will accrue to the individual, as you noted by saying “If”
Jackie
@Martin:
Somewhere in the abandoned Subaru out in the field.
RaflW
@MagdaInBlack: Worrying about a fountain 1,016 miles from the nearest corner of his constituency, Texas.
Cruz is just weird. WFT.
Josie
@RaflW:
Cruz doesn’t even care about Texas, as evidenced by his famous run to CanCun while the rest of us were freezing our butts off. He cares about himself, end of story.
NaijaGal
@JaySinWa: That was a given, when voters in their infinite “wisdom” decided to elevate a convicted felon to the highest office in the land. As he dismantles everything that made America a beacon to the world, I’m sure they’re ecstatic.
rikyrah
@HeleninEire:
🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
So sorry, Helen 😞 😞