Trump administration refers NY AG Letitia James for possible prosecution over allegations of mortgage fraud
New York Attorney General Letitia James has been hit with shocking allegations by the Trump administration, accusing her of mortgage fraud.
In documents obtained by Fox News Channel's The Ingraham Angle, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, accusing James of mortgage fraud.
FHFA Director William Pulte said in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that James appears to have falsified records in order to meet certain lending requirements and receive favorable loan terms.
Pulte cited a property in Virginia that James allegedly claimed as her principal residence, and a property in New York that she claimed as a four-unit structure instead of five, which he said could mean she was able to get a different and more favorable loan.
Fox News contributor and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Ingraham the irony of James getting accused of falsifying records is "perfectly crushing."
"This is a person who prosecuted Trump for everything short of ripping a label off a mattress, and among the charges that were brought in New York, in just the civil but the criminal case, was making false or misleading statements to financial institutions," Turley said. "As for James, if we apply the Letitia James standard that she created, there'd be little question here. This seems pretty straightforward."
He explained that the Trump administration is saying this was not her principal residence because, as a New York elected official, she has to say her principal residence is in New York.
James is also accused of stating that her father is her husband in order to file as a married couple, Turley added.
"The Supreme Court just stated earlier in March, in a case called Thompson, that they want to see knowing false statements under sections like 10-14, not just misleading statements," Turley said. "These are misleading statements: either it's your principal residence or it's not. Either you're married to your father or he's your father."
The DOJ and James did not respond to Fox News on the matter.
The issue has been prosecuted in the past, but as Turley said on the Ingraham Angle, the "documents themselves are quite damning."
The New York Post reported that the documents show that the property James purchased with her father had both parties listed as "husband and wife" in 1983 and 2000.
"While this was a long time ago, it raises serious concerns about the validity of Ms. James representations on mortgage applications," Pulte reportedly wrote.
James brought forth a civil fraud suit against President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and its senior leadership in 2022, frequently sitting in the courtroom throughout the proceedings, and celebrated the prosecution of Trump in the Manhattan criminal trial over the 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump was ordered to pay a $454 million civil fraud judgment in James' lawsuit against him, which is currently on appeal.
So far in 2025, James has spearheaded at least five legal actions against the Trump administration, including leading a coalition of state attorneys general to sue the federal government to halt DOGE's access to the Treasury Department's internal systems, as well as another lawsuit related to the Trump admin slashing grant funding to research institutions and universities.
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