When New York Attorney General Letitia James was recently indicted on mortgage-related charges, we all knew how the media and Democrats would portray the situation, and they did not disappoint.
Without even looking at the facts of the case, they all claimed the DOJ was exacting revenge by launching a targeted prosecution on behalf of Donald Trump.
Well, some of the evidence in the case has just been leaked, and it does not look good for James.
The indictment against James was announced by Lindsey Halligan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who was reportedly appointed after her predecessor declined to pursue the case.
Halligan stated, “No one is above the law. The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust."
She continued, “The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
I have been asked many times if James should really be facing the possibility of serving 30 years for this alleged crime, and I have responded “no” every time. But, I quickly follow up by stating that Trump did not deserve the case that was filed against him, either. So, to me, this is all about Karma.
The cries of foul play from Democrats over the James indictment are comical when you consider that these were the very same people saying that “nobody is above the law” when she filed her civil fraud suit against Trump in New York.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stated, “What we're seeing today is nothing less than the weaponization of the Justice Department to punish those who hold the powerful accountable.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that James has “courageously been at the forefront of successfully challenging the Trump administration’s lawless and deeply unpopular overreach.”
I think what he meant to say is that James ran on a platform promising to take Trump down in any way she could, and now the shoe is on the other foot, and Democrats don’t like it one bit. I am still waiting for any member of the media to ask Dems why James’ quest to prosecute Trump was justified, yet a grand jury indictment against James is over the top.
This week, a document was revealed in which James took out a mortgage on a property she claimed was her primary residence, a move that enabled her to save about $19,000 in total. However, it was not James who lived in the home after she closed on it, but rather her grandniece, Nakia Thompson, who reportedly has a rather extensive criminal history.
Thompson told the grand jury that she was living in the home rent-free, but the mortgage agreement specifically stipulated that James must “occupy and use” the home and that she must maintain “exclusive control” over its occupancy, conditions she appears to have violated.
James attested that the property would be “primarily” for her personal use for at least one year, but Thompson moved in almost as soon as the home was closed on. The agreement also forbids any “shared ownership arrangement.” So, again, she appears to be in violation of the contract.
The report gets even better, with James allegedly lying on her taxes about the property, with the cherry on the sundae being that her grandniece is a fugitive from justice in North Carolina. This all seems pretty damning to me, but I am not an attorney. I still think this all hinges on the judge and jury pool, which are likely to all be in James’s favor. I would love to see a conviction here, but I am just not terribly optimistic that it will actually happen.
