A senior federal prosecutor in Virginia has told her colleagues that she lacks confidence there is legal grounds to pursue fraudulent mortgage charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, as reported by a source knowledgeable about the situation.
The prosecutor, Elizabeth Yusi, who oversees significant prosecutions in the Norfolk office for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, intends to soon present her assessment to Lindsey Halligan, a ally of the former president who was placed as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia recently.
The Justice Department did not respond on the matter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia also did not return a request for comment.
Significant Confrontation Between DOJ and Former President
This case represents another notable confrontation between the Justice Department and Trump, who has in the past fired attorneys who resisted to target his critics. Halligan, who possesses no prosecutorial experience, was appointed to the role after requests by Trump after her preceding attorney concluded there was no probable cause to file criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director.
Trump has openly called for the U.S. Attorney General to charge James, who spearheaded a civil fraud case against the president that resulted in a $500 million fine, though the ruling was afterwards thrown out by a New York state appellate court.
Housing Fraud Accusations and Inquiry
William Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency head and a staunch Trump ally, made a legal complaint against James to the Justice Department in April, claiming she may have committed mortgage fraud. Pulte cited mortgage documents related to a 2023 Norfolk, Virginia, home that James supported the acquisition of for her niece, in which James seemed to state on a document that she meant to reside in the home as her principal dwelling. James was serving as the Attorney General of New York at the time.
Prosecutors assembled a grand jury in May to look into the matter but had trouble building a case against James, notwithstanding demands from Trump allies. Electronic correspondence from the time of the home purchase and further mortgage documents demonstrate James explicitly stating that she did not mean for the home to be her primary residence. This evidence makes it difficult for prosecutors to prove that James knowingly lied on the mortgage documents.
Ongoing Shake-Up in Prosecutorial Unit
Multiple prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have faced termination or resigned in recent weeks as Trump has escalated pressure on the office to bring charges against Comey and James.
Erik Siebert, Halligan’s predecessor, left his position on September 19 after facing pressure from Trump to file charges. Maya Song, a senior deputy to Siebert, was also terminated in late September. Michael Ben’Ary, a prominent national security prosecutor in the office, was also fired last week after false accusations from a pro-Trump media personality.
“The leadership is more concerned with penalizing the President’s opponents than they are with safeguarding our national security,” he wrote in his departure note to colleagues.
“Justice for Americans harmed by our enemies should not be subject to what someone in the Department of Justice sees in their online content that day.”
