A senior federal prosecutor in Virginia has advised her colleagues that she lacks confidence there is sufficient evidence to pursue fraudulent mortgage charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, per a source knowledgeable about the situation.
The prosecutor, Elizabeth Yusi, who oversees major criminal cases in the Norfolk office for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, plans to soon present her conclusion to Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally who was installed as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in the previous month.
The Justice Department offered no statement on the matter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia also did not return a request for comment.
Major Clash Between Justice Department and Trump
This case marks another notable confrontation between the Justice Department and Trump, who has earlier dismissed attorneys who refused to take action against his opponents. Halligan, who lacks any prosecutorial experience, was appointed to the role following pressure from Trump after her predecessor concluded there was no legal basis to file criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director.
Trump has explicitly urged the U.S. Attorney General to charge James, who led a civil fraud case against the president that resulted in a half-billion dollar fine, though the decision was afterwards overturned by a New York state appellate court.
Mortgage Fraud Claims and Investigation
William Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency head and a strong Trump ally, made a allegation against James to the Justice Department in April, alleging she may have committed mortgage fraud. Pulte cited mortgage documents pertaining to a 2023 Norfolk, Virginia, home that James helped purchase for her niece, in which James appeared to indicate on a document that she intended to use the home as her main home. James was serving as the Attorney General of New York at the time.
Prosecutors formed a grand jury in May to examine the matter but faced difficulties building a case against James, even with demands from Trump allies. Electronic correspondence from the time of the home purchase and additional mortgage documents reveal James explicitly stating that she did not mean for the home to be her primary residence. This evidence complicates efforts for prosecutors to prove that James deliberately falsified on the mortgage documents.
Recent Changes in Prosecutorial Office
Multiple prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have either been fired or resigned in recent weeks as Trump has ramped up pressure on the office to bring charges against Comey and James.
Erik Siebert, Halligan’s predecessor, stepped down on September 19 after experiencing pressure from Trump to file charges. Maya Song, a senior deputy to Siebert, was also dismissed in late September. Michael Ben’Ary, a top national security prosecutor in the office, was also fired last week after false accusations from a pro-Trump media personality.
“The leadership is more concerned with punishing the President’s political foes than they are with safeguarding our national security,” he stated in his farewell letter to colleagues.
“Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be subject to what someone in the Department of Justice encounters in their online content that day.”
