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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
DOJ struggles to build mortgage fraud case against Trump adversary | |
Letitia James, sources tell CNN | |
By Kristen Holmes, Hannah Rabinowitz, Kara Scannell, CNN | |
Updated: | |
4:13 PM EDT, Wed September 17, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
Justice Department prosecutors in Virginia believe they have not | |
gathered enough evidence to indict Letitia James, the New York Attorney | |
General and long term adversary of President Donald Trump, for mortgage | |
fraud, according to a source familiar with the matter and another | |
person briefed on the matter. | |
The five-month investigation has featured interviews with dozens of | |
witnesses, the source said, cautioning that the investigation is still | |
ongoing. | |
The US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia | |
declined to comment. | |
Trump has urged DOJ officials to investigate James aggressively. The | |
president has privately and angrily complained about James even months | |
into taking office, multiple sources familiar with the conversations | |
told CNN. | |
first reported this story. | |
If James were to be indicted, it would mark a major escalation by the | |
Justice Department in its to bring cases against those who investigated | |
Trump between his two terms as president. James won a civil case last | |
year against the Trump Organization and the president himself over | |
allegations of faulty business practices. A New York appeals court | |
panel upheld the finding that Trump is liable for fraud but the nearly | |
half-billion dollar penalty finding it excessive. The decision is being | |
appealed | |
Since May, prosecutors have whether James knowingly made false | |
statements on a loan application by indicating a property in Virginia | |
is her primary residence. | |
But other document collected in the case provided by James’ attorneys | |
to the Justice Department and reviewed by CNN show James repeatedly | |
stating the opposite. In one email to a mortgage broker, James wrote | |
that “this property WILL NOT be my primary residence.” And on other | |
forms that asked whether the home would be her primary residence, James | |
checked off “NO.” | |
Nonetheless, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia has | |
faced pressure to indict James from Ed Martin, the head of the Justice | |
Department’s Weaponization Working Group, and Bill Pulte, the | |
director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, two sources tell CNN. | |
Martin and Pulte have also accused Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and | |
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud (both have denied | |
those allegations). | |
Martin did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. | |
In a statement to CNN, James’ attorney Abbe Lowell slammed the | |
administration’s “revenge tour,” saying that “it’s no | |
surprise they are having trouble finding an objective and law-abiding | |
prosecutor who would ignore the facts and the evidence to manufacture | |
sham charges.” | |
A grand jury investigation into accusations against James has also | |
convened in Albany, New York, CNN previously reported. That probe is | |
said to be looking into which means violating someone’s | |
constitutional rights, against Trump. | |
Martin also overseeing an investigation involving a property James owns | |
in New York. He personally visited the property last month and outside | |
of it. | |
Martin told Fox News he needed to “lay eyes” on it. | |
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