Letitia James Pleads Not Guilty in Mortgage Case Trump Pushed

The Washington Post

12:20 JST, October 25, 2025

NORFOLK, Va. – New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of mortgage fraud brought by the Justice Department amid President Donald Trump’s push to prosecute those who have investigated him.

James, the highest-ranking Democrat to be indicted as part of Trump’s effort, entered her plea during a brief arraignment in Norfolk federal court. U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker set a trial date of Jan. 26, saying he expected the matter to take about five days.

“We want the speediest trial we can possibly get,” James’s attorney Abbe Lowell said. James, standing next to him at the defense table, entered her plea.

“Not guilty, judge,” she said, “to both counts.”

James turned to face family members and supporters seated in the courtroom gallery as the hearing concluded, smiling and touching her hand to her chest.

She emerged from the courthouse afterward, greeted by cheers from dozens of demonstrators who had gathered outside. Some carried signs reading “Defend Democracy” and “Suppression of Opposition” as a speaker blasted Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.”

“This is not about me. This is about all of us and a justice system which has been weaponized,” James said, addressing the crowd. “A justice system which has been used as a tool of revenge and a weapon against those individuals who simply did their job and who stood up for the rule of law.”

James’s defiant remarks and confidence that she would be vindicated stood in contrast to Trump’s recent efforts to paint her as guilty and pressure the Justice Department to charge her and other perceived political foes.

James’s lawyers signaled they intend to file several motions in the coming weeks, including one seeking the case’s dismissal on grounds of vindictive prosecution. They also argued in a separate motion Friday that Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was appointed illegally and that, as a result, the case she brought against James must be thrown out.

The case against James has been troubled for months. Prosecutors in Virginia investigated a criminal referral made this spring by a Trump ally, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who alleged that James had committed mortgage fraud in purchasing a Norfolk home.

After a grand jury in Norfolk issued subpoenas, the Eastern District prosecutors deemed the evidence too weak to seek criminal charges, The Washington Post has reported.

The Justice Department then fired several career prosecutors, just as Trump took to social media to publicly call on Attorney General Pam Bondi to bring criminal charges against James and others. Legal experts and retired judges have said using the criminal justice system to punish Trump’s perceived political foes marks an unprecedented attack on the rule of law.

“I look at the facts like everybody else. You read the facts, and to me she looks terrible, she looks like she’s very guilty, but that’s going to be up to the DOJ,” Trump told reporters last month about James.

James and former FBI director James B. Comey, who was indicted last month on charges of lying to Congress, have denied the charges against them and called the accusations politically driven vendettas being carried out at the president’s behest. Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, who has become a frequent critic of the president, made a similar claim of vindictiveness and pleaded not guilty last week to federal charges in Maryland that he mishandled classified information.

The Justice Department is investigating other officials who have drawn Trump’s ire, including Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California and Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, both of whom prosecutors are scrutinizing over mortgage fraud allegations similar to those against James.

A grand jury indicted James this month on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. The case centers on a three-bedroom home James purchased in Norfolk for about $137,000 in 2020.

According to the indictment, James signed a “second home rider” that provided more favorable terms on the mortgage but required that she not rent the property to others. The indictment alleges that James instead put the property up for rent and stood to make more than $18,000 in “ill-gotten gains” over the life of the loan.

Career prosecutors, including Erik S. Siebert, the U.S. attorney Trump had installed for the Eastern District of Virginia in January, determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge James. Trump then forced out Siebert and replaced him with Halligan, a White House aide who had no experience as a prosecutor before she personally got grand juries to indict Comey and James.

“He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding – all because I did my job as the New York state attorney general,” James said in a video message responding to her indictment this month. “These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost.”

Halligan is prosecuting the case along with an assistant U.S. attorney, Roger Keller, who normally works in Missouri, according to court records. They told the court Friday that they expect to call eight to 10 witnesses at trial and did not ask for James to be placed under any special bail conditions.

In his motion Friday, Lowell questioned Halligan’s appointment as U.S. attorney and described her as someone “who had no authority to litigate this case on behalf of the United States.”

Lowell maintained that Trump improperly installed Halligan after Siebert’s resignation, in violation of laws that govern who can make interim U.S. attorney appointments when there is a vacancy.

His arguments mirrored similar claims lodged by Comey’s attorneys, who have also asked a judge to disqualify Halligan and dismiss the case against him.

Walker, the judge overseeing James’s case, said he would refer her motion to the same out-of-state judge handling Comey’s request and leave it up to her to decide whether to handle both motions together.

James has been one of the president’s chief antagonists since her office filed civil fraud charges against Trump and his real estate organization in 2022, resulting in roughly $500 million in penalties and interest. A New York appeals court voided the fines in August but affirmed a lower court’s finding that Trump and others in his company had committed fraud.

The Justice Department also has issued at least one subpoena to James in a separate federal investigation that appears to focus on whether Trump’s rights were violated in the civil fraud case. A second subpoena to the New York attorney general’s office indicates that the Justice Department is probing James’s litigation against the National Rifle Association, which led to court-mandated reforms of the gun rights group, The Post has reported.

As she left the Norfolk courthouse Friday, James vowed none of that would divert her from her work.

“Throughout my public career, I’ve stood up for the rights of Americans, and I will not be deterred. I will not be distracted,” she said. “I’m heading back to New York because there’s work to be done.”