NEW YORK — Letitia James’ two-count federal indictment is a crescendo in her bitter legal battle with President Donald Trump.
The Democratic New York attorney general for years made Trump a focal point of her office’s high-profile case against his family’s business empire — the culmination of a 2018 campaign pledge to pursue the Republican president, whom she called “illegitimate.”
Now the roles have been reversed: Trump’s Department of Justice is driving ahead with a mortgage fraud case against James that a U.S. attorney considered too flimsy to prosecute. The charges were then initiated by Trump’s hand-picked prosecutor in Virginia.
The corrosive fight has served the political purposes of both James, the first Black woman elected to statewide office in New York, and a president who insisted an array of Democrats have conducted “lawfare” against him and his allies. And James stands to receive a massive boost from her Democratic allies in this deep blue state as she runs for a third term next year.
In a video statement soon after the indictment was made public, James blasted the move as a further weaponization of the justice system by Trump during his second term. She stood by her office’s case against the Trump Organization in a civil suit stemming from the company overstating the value of its assets.
“We conducted a two-year investigation based on the facts and the evidence, not politics,” she said. “Judges have upheld the trial court’s finding that Donald Trump, his company and his two sons are liable for fraud.”
James is just the latest Trump foe to face the wrath of the president’s Department of Justice — a list that also includes former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey and will likely grow in the coming weeks. Trump, who has called James “a racist” and accused her of conducting a “witch hunt” against him, has long decried the attorney general who ran on what he called a “get Trump” platform.
Top New York Democrats — including the attorney general herself — prepared for this moment. State lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul this year included a $10 million legal defense fund in the state budget earlier this year, though James is declining to tap into it. Instead, she will use a legal fund set up by the Democratic Attorneys General Association.
The long-running feud has its roots in James’ initial run for attorney general in 2018 during Trump’s first term and as Democrats sought to harness their base’s backlash against the president.
Then New York City’s public advocate, James stood out in a crowded field of Democrats running to succeed scandal-scarred Eric Schneiderman by vowing to use the state attorney general office’s considerable power to probe Trump’s business dealings.
“I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president,” she said in a video as she campaigned. “I believe that this president is incompetent. I believe that this president is ill-equipped to serve in the highest office of this land.”
In her 2018 election night victory speech, James put an exclamation point on the pledge: “As the next attorney general of his home state, I will be shining a bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings.”
That vow translated into a years-long probe of the Trump Organization, which began in 2019 — the third year of Trump’s first term. In 2022, with Trump out of office, James filed a civil suit against the former president, accusing him, three of his adult children and employees of inflating the value of various properties to potential lenders.
The suit drove to the heart of countering Trump’s claims of being a successful businessperson and initially led to a blockbuster result. A state judge in 2024 fined Trump more $350 million and barred him from operating in the state for three years. The fine later ballooned to more than $500 million. An appeals court upheld Trump’s liability, but determined the penalty was excessive and voided the fine, which James’ office is appealing.
Trump repeatedly lashed out at James while the investigation was underway. He criticized then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019 for using “his attorney general as a bludgeoning tool for his own purposes.” (James’ office two years later released a report that determined Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, a bombshell that led to his resignation. Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing.)
Once Trump returned to the presidency, his Department of Justice launched a legal effort against her and in some instances made overt public displays that she was under investigation.
A trench-coat wearing DOJ Pardon Attorney Ed Martin was photographed outside her Brooklyn home in July by The New York Post amid the mortgage fraud probe. In upstate New York, acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone subpoenaed James’ office in connection to her Trump Organization probe and a separate case that involved the financial management of the National Rifle Association.
In September, Trump ratcheted up the pressure on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to bring a case against James, Comey and California Sen. Adam Schiff.
“They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
