The Trump administration isn’t backing off on its quest to go after New York Attorney General Letitia James, despite a federal judge and two grand juries rejecting previous attempts to prosecute her.
The federal prosecutors are now investigating James’s financial transactions related to her longtime hairdresser.
According to The New York Times, Department of Justice officials are interested in speaking with Iyesata Marsh about past financial transactions involving Attorney General James or her campaign. In December, Marsh was charged in Louisiana federal court with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the purchase of a Land Rover. She and her nephew are accused of using the identity and personal information of an unidentified woman in Ohio to buy the vehicle.
DOJ officials are reportedly looking into James’s 2018 campaign for attorney general, in which the campaign paid Marsh to rent a Brooklyn studio she owns. They have also targeted payments made by the campaign to Marsh related to a musical performance at a political event. James has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Marsh.
James’s attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, slammed the Trump administration’s latest effort to target her, calling the new investigation a part of a “string of failures in carrying out President Trump’s political vendetta” against her. Lowell said the DOJ is using Marsh’s criminal case as a way “to shake down people based on their association with Ms. James.”
“Like their earlier attempts, this attack on Ms. James is doomed to fail,” he added. “The desperation of those working for Trump is palpable and makes indelible the stain already put on this Justice Department.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly made clear his intent to seek revenge against Letitia James, who, as New York’s top prosecutor, led a successful case against him for business fraud. Trump was found liable for “wildly” exaggerating his net worth by billions of dollars. However, the Trump administration’s attempts to prosecute James for alleged mortgage fraud–an accusation she has categorically denied–have resulted in charges being thrown out.
In November 2025, a federal judge dismissed the criminal charges filed against James, ruling that the U.S. attorney selected by Trump was illegally appointed. In December 2025, two separate grand juries declined to indict James in the fraud case. On Thursday, a judge disqualified a Trump-appointed prosecutor from overseeing investigations into James, ruling that he was not lawfully serving as an acting U.S. attorney because he had not been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
“This is a revenge-driven fishing expedition,” Anthony Coley, a political analyst and former DOJ official during the Biden administration, told theGrio.
“The good thing is that the judicial system has seen these efforts for what they are—political, not grounded in facts or law. It’s only a matter of time before this latest so-called investigation collapses, just like the others.”
