Despite numerous failed attempts, the Trump administration is not done trying to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s top housing official, Bill Pulte, issued two new criminal referrals for James, whom Trump has publicly attacked in what critics see as part of the president’s ongoing quest to use the Department of Justice to go after his political enemies by any means necessary.
Attorney General James notably and successfully prosecuted Trump for business fraud in a 2024 civil case that resulted in the then-former president being barred from doing business in New York.
Pulte, who previously issued a criminal referral to the DOJ against James for mortgage fraud, has revived his efforts, despite a judge tossing out the DOJ’s first case against James and two grand juries declining to indict the top Democratic attorney. According to CNN, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency issued two referrals to the DOJ for “suspected homeowners’ insurance fraud.” The two referrals were sent to the U.S. Attorneys for the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida.
CNN reports:
“One referral alleges James ‘may have defrauded’ an ‘Illinois-based company, Allstate’ when she submitted a homeowners insurance application for her Norfolk, Virginia, property. The other alleges she may have done so on her homeowners insurance application to a Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based company, Universal Property Insurance.”
James, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and accused Trump of a “political vendetta,” still isn’t backing down. The New York attorney general’s personal attorney, Abbe Lowell, said the administration is continuing an “improper revenge campaign instead of helping bring down the rising cost of living in this country.”
“Frustrated by repeated failures, where judges and grand juries have rejected their attempts to charge Attorney General James, Trump and his political enablers keep abusing their power to pursue a vendetta against her by trying to rename, refile, and repeat baseless allegations,” Lowell told CNN.
The attorney added, “These desperate tactics will fail — just as every previous attempt has failed — and exposes an Administration that has abandoned its responsibility to the American people in favor of petty political payback.”
The Trump administration first pursued charges against James in October 2025 in connection with a home she purchased in Virginia. Then U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, a former personal Trump attorney, accused her of knowingly listing the property as a secondary residential home when she actually used it as a rental property. James, who pleaded not guilty, said she broke no law and simply made an error while filling out a form related to the home purchase, but quickly rectified it and didn’t deceive the lender.
The case was ultimately dismissed after the judge found that Trump’s appointment of Halligan, then an interim U.S. attorney, in Alexandria, Virginia, was invalid.
