FBI opens investigation into NY AG Tish James, reports say
President Donald Trump has frequently attacked James since she won a $454 million judgement against Trump for defrauding lenders by inflating his assets in 2024.
In a criminal referral filed in April, the Trump-appointed director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency accused James of falsifying bank documents and property records in multiple instances in order to acquire government backed assistance loans and more favorable loan terms.
FHFA head William Pulte alleged in the referral that James potentially misrepresented property descriptions and claimed her primary residential status as Norfolk. He cited "media reports" as the basis.
On April 24, attorney Abbe Lowell sent a letter to the Justice Department arguing the accusations against James are meritless and that they are motivated by Trump's personal animus towards James.
"These baseless and long-discredited allegations, put to rest by my April 24th letter to the Department of Justice, are suddenly back in the news just days after President Trump publicly attacked Attorney General James," Lowell said in a May 8 statement on behalf of James. "This appears to be the political retribution President Trump threatened to exact that AG Bondi assured the Senate would not occur on her watch. If prosecutors are genuinely interested in the truth, we are prepared to meet false claims with facts."
The Justice Department declined to comment.
James is currently suing the Trump administration over cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services' and executive actions pertaining to elections that she says are unconstitutional.
At the White House on May 6, the United States attorney general, Pam Bondi, declined to comment on the referral.
"Well, I don't want to get involved in something that Pamela is involved with," Trump said, before he lit into James.
The president said James is a "disaster for New York" and called her a "horrible, horrible human being" and "total crook."
"That's just my opinion," he said. "Pam is going to have to do what she wants. She's a very bad person. She's a very, very bad, a very bad person who campaigned solely on, I'm going to get Donald Trump, over and over again."
Trump again said that his comments, made in the presence of his hand-picked attorney general, have "nothing to do with what Pam does. Pam is going to do what's right. She always does."
News outlets began reporting that DOJ had opened an investigation into James two days later.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
15 minutes ago
- The Independent
University of Virginia president resigns under Trump administration pressure on DEI, AP source says
The president of the University of Virginia is resigning his position under pressure from the Justice Department, which had pushed for his departure amid scrutiny of the school's diversity, equity and inclusion practices, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. The departure of James Ryan, who had led the school since 2018, represents a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration's effort to reshape higher education. Doing it at a public university marks a new frontier in a campaign that has almost exclusively targeted Ivy League schools. It also widens the rationale behind the government's aggressive tactics, focusing on DEI rather than alleged tolerance of antisemitism. Ryan had faced conservative criticism that he had failed to heed federal orders to eliminate DEI policies, and his removal was pushed by the Justice Department as a way to help resolve a department inquiry targeting the school, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the move by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. The New York Times first reported on the resignation and the Justice Department's insistence on it. The Justice Department declined to comment Friday.
Leader Live
20 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Beijing deal will speed China's export of minerals to US
The agreement comes after China retaliated against steep import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese goods, and moved to slow the export of rare earth minerals and magnets much needed by US industrial interests. Mr Bessent said on Fox Business Network's Mornings With Maria that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping 'had a phone call' previously 'and then our teams met in London, ironed this out, and I am confident now that we, as agreed, the magnets will flow'. 'Part of the agreement was tariffs coming down and rare earth magnets starting to flow back to the US,' Mr Bessent said. 'They formed the core of a lot of our industrial base. They were not flowing as fast as previously agreed.' His comments come after Mr Trump announced two weeks earlier an agreement with China that he said would ease exportation of magnets and rare earth minerals That pact cleared the way for the trade talks to continue. The US has previously suspended some sales to China of critical US technologies like components used for jet engines and semiconductors. But it has also agreed to stop trying to revoke visas of Chinese nationals on US college campuses. Mr Bessent added of critical mineral exports: 'What we're seeing here is a de-escalation.' Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV that the deal was signed earlier this week. China's commerce ministry said on Friday that the two sides had 'further confirmed the details of the framework', though its statement did not explicitly mention US access to rare earths that have been at the centre of the negotiations. 'China will, in accordance with the law, review and approve eligible export applications for controlled items. In turn, the United States will lift a series of restrictive measures it had imposed on China,' it said. Initial talks in Geneva in early May led both sides to postpone massive tariff hikes that were threatening to freeze much trade between the two countries. Later talks in London set a framework for negotiations and the deal mentioned by Mr Trump appeared to formalise that agreement, setting the stage for Mr Bessent's comments on Friday.
The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump can't understand why Iran's ‘Supreme Leader' isn't saying thanks: ‘Saved him from ugly death'
President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at Iran 's supreme leader for continuing to beat the rhetorical war drum rather than express gratitude for Trump's decision not to order his assassination at the hands of American and Israeli forces during his country's 12-day war with Israel this month. In a Truth Social post, the president groused that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the octogenarian cleric who has headed Iran's religious fundamentalist government since 1989, had boasted publicly of having won that short conflict, calling the Iranian leader's claim 'a lie.' 'As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie. His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,' Trump said. He added: 'I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'' Trump also suggested that Khamenei should be expressing gratitude for the president's role in pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recall Israel Air Force fighters in the hours before a cease-fire between Israel and Iran went into effect earlier this week, claiming that those planes 'were heading directly to Tehran, looking for a big day, perhaps the final knockout!' 'Tremendous damage would have ensued, and many Iranians would have been killed. It was going to be the biggest attack of the War, by far,' Trump added. Continuing, Trump claimed that he'd spent 'the last few days' working on how to lift longstanding — and in his words, 'BITING' — U.S. sanctions on Tehran to enable the country to have 'much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery.' But he further complained that Khamenei's 'statement of anger, hatred, and disgust' had caused him to have 'immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more.' 'Iran has to get back into the World Order flow, or things will only get worse for them. They are always so angry, hostile, and unhappy, and look at what it has gotten them - A burned out, blown up Country, with no future, a decimated Military, a horrible Economy, and DEATH all around them,' he said, adding later that Tehran's leadership had 'no hope' and things would 'only get worse' until they 'realize that you often get more with HONEY than you do with VINEGAR.' The president's pugnacious outburst against Iran's de facto leader came just days after American B-2 stealth bombers dropped more than a dozen 30,000 pound bunker-busting bombs onto a trio of Iranian nuclear sites in what was the largest military action against Tehran since a failed mission to rescue hostages held at the then-American embassy there in 1979. Trump has claimed the bombing runs — plus dozens of cruise missiles launched from an American guided missile submarine — 'obliterated' the Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan nuclear facilities as part of what American officials called 'Operation Midnight Hammer.' The Trump administration has hoped that the strikes that it conducted could force Iran to accept US conditions and stop taking steps toward obtaining a nuclear weapon. But the Iranian parliament voted on Wednesday to fast-track a proposal to effectively stop cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear oversight agency. The United States had initially planned to conduct a sixth round of negotiations before Israel struck Iran. Ahead of the Trump administration conducting its strikes on Saturday, it notified Iran through intermediaries that the strikes would be limited to notify the regime that strikes would be limited and that the United States would not accept any uranium enrichment. At the same time, administration officials have discussed a plan to lure Iran back to the negotiating table including an option to have Arab nations investing $20-30 billion in a non-enrichment nuclear program for Iran for energy purposes while also allowing Iran to access $6 billion sitting in foreign bank accounts that it current cannot access, as well as lifting some foreign sanctions.
