A grand jury in Norfolk declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James in the overdone mortgage fraud case that Donald Trump tried to get the Justice Department to make stick.
Trump had James, a Democrat, in his crosshairs because she had overseen the civil fraud case in New York that ended with a jury delivering a $400 million verdict against him.
A federal judge had thrown out indictments against James and former FBI Director James Comey two weeks ago, citing the basic incompetence of the Trump administration in the way it handled the cases.
“All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside,” Judge Cameron McGowan Currie wrote, the “Ms. Halligan” in the case being Lindsey Halligan, the former insurance lawyer installed by Donald Trump as the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in September, with the express purpose of securing indictments of Comey and James.
Comey’s lawyers had sought a dismissal based on the “defective appointment” theory.
Halligan, a former failed beauty-pageant contestant-turned-dimestore lawyer, was installed in her interim U.S. Attorney post in Virginia after the previous interim, Erik Siebert, refused to follow through with the cases.
Siebert was forced out days before the five-year statute of limitations on the matter that the Trumpers wanted to bring regarding congressional testimony in September 2020 were to expire.
Now that we’re into December, that deadline has since passed, so Comey is home-free.
The judge allowed prosecutors to go back to a grand jury in the James case, but the grand jury empaneled in Norfolk declined to do so – though that doesn’t signal the effort to railroad something against James into existence is yet over.
Yes, DOJ lawyers can try again – and you can expect them to.
James did issue a statement on the latest development in the case today.
“As I’ve said from the start, these charges are baseless,” she said. “It’s time for the weaponization of our justice system to stop. I’m grateful to the members of the grand jury and humbled by the support I’ve received across the nation. I will keep doing my job standing up for New Yorkers.”
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Chris Graham
