Editorial: Tish James' rights and wrongs: AG is wrongly targeted by Trump

Yahoo

21-04-2025

Donald Trump is abusing the levers of government to launch an attack against New York Attorney General Tish James on what seem to be pretty flimsy claims of fraud.
In a referral letter from the Trump-appointed Federal Housing Finance Agency director, Bill Pulte, to Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, former Trump private lawyers now serving as the U.S. attorney general and deputy AG, Pulte claims that James 'has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire government backed assistance and loans and more favorable loans terms.'
Pulte points to two instances, one in Virginia, and one in Brooklyn, concerning paperwork discrepancies, both which were corrected.
On the Virginia home, which James helped her niece buy in 2023, there is a standard purchase agreement where James attests that she would make the home her principal residence. The home was for the niece and James was not to live there and on the much more important mortgage application for the property, James said correctly that it would not be her primary residence. No mortgage fraud there.
Regarding a house that James owns in Brooklyn, an incorrect certificate of occupancy held by the city Department of Buildings says it is a five-family structure, but that was an error filed by a previous owner. There are only four units and the James mortgage reflects that. No mortgage fraud there.
These patently phony charges, echoed by Trump using a presidential megaphone, are petty payback for James bringing legitimate civil charges against Trump for him actually faking the value of his New York properties to deceive lenders and insurers, real fraud that was proved in a court of law and for which he has been fined hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties.
We thought there was sufficient evidence for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to seek a criminal indictment against Trump.
In the case civil brought by James, Trump and his lawyers got to argue their case before the court at trial, challenging the witnesses and evidence offered by James and presenting their own witnesses and evidence. But the trial judge ruled against Trump. Trump had the right to appeal and he dutifully filed and argued an appeal last fall, which James opposed. The mid-level Manhattan appellate bench will render their decision and then each side can take the matter to the state's highest court for final resolution.
That is all different than how James proceeded in her probe of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo on sexual harassment complaints. Four years ago she issued a report, which helped push him to resign, but her findings were never tested in court and Cuomo never had a chance to challenge them. Also, which troubled us from the week the report was issued, was that the report contained clearly trivial allegations, such as a harmless mild joke that Cuomo made on national TV about a female doctor wearing a full surgical gown.
The report contained other, more serious allegations like those of accuser Charlotte Bennett. But there is no proof of Bennett's claims and there now never will be as Bennett has just ended her civil suit against New York State. Her federal suit against Cuomo she withdrew before she was deposed. In one of the civil cases that does continue, of an unnamed female state trooper, a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn called the James report 'hearsay,' as it was never tested in an adversarial setting like a lawsuit.
All of which is why we have called on James to release all the records from her probe, including the secret 156 interview memos. One interview memo that did surface shows that one of the other complainants likely committed perjury. Cuomo is now a leading candidate for mayor; the public has a right to see everything.
___