A Virginia grand jury on Thursday indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on one count of bank fraud following intense pressure from President Donald Trump to bring the case, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Trump has demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi prosecute James. Last Saturday, the president called James “scum” in a Truth Social post and said she should be removed from her job. He also railed against “her WITCH HUNT against President Donald J. Trump, and others.”
The evidence was presented to the grand jurors on Thursday by Lindsey Halligan, the president’s newly installed interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who also secured an indictment former FBI Director James Comey two weeks ago. Comey pleaded not guilty to the charges on Wednesday.
Halligan was Trump’s hand-picked choice to replace Erik Siebert, the previous head of the office who resigned after the president threatened to fire him for resisting pressure to charge both Comey and James.
A former White House aide and lawyer to Trump, Halligan last month took the unusual step of presenting evidence against Comey by herself after several assistant U.S. attorneys who reported her declined to participate.
And on Thursday, she presented the evidence against James alone after a senior supervisor in her office indicated to colleagues that she she did not see probable cause to seek an indictment against the New York attorney general.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
