(The Center Square) — Indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James blasted the federal charges against her as a ‘politically motivated” attack at a Monday night rally for Democratic socialist and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
James, a Democrat, headlined Mamdani’s “Our Time has Come” rally in her first public appearance since she was indicted by a Virginia grand jury last week on federal mortgage fraud charges filed by President Donald Trump’s hand-picked prosecutor, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan.
While James didn’t mention Trump by name, she railed about “powerful voices trying to silence truth and punish dissent” and “weaponize justice for political gain” and vowed she “won’t capitulate” in remarks to the crowd in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood.
“We are witnessing a fraying in our democracy,” James said. “I stand on solid rock. I will not bow, I will not bow, I will not break, I will not bend, I will not give up. You come for me, you gotta come through all of us.”
James was indicted last Thursday on charges of falsely telling a bank that she would be living in a Norfolk, Virginia, home she bought in 2020 for about $137,000 as a secondary residence, but allegedly used it as an investment property.
The charges claim the alleged misrepresentation to the federally backed bank allowed James to receive a favorable interest rate, saving her nearly $19,000 over the life of the loan.
James has denied any wrongdoing and claims the charges are a “politically motivated” response to her office’s legal challenges. She is scheduled to make her first appearance in federal court on Oct. 24.
James, first elected in 2018, has been a frequent critic of Trump and has filed several multistate lawsuits against the Trump administration over federal immigration policies, rollbacks in federal funding, and worker layoffs and other actions.
That includes a civil fraud trial that ended in a $454 million judgment against the Trump organization and several of its executives, which was recently overturned by a New York appeals court. James has appealed the ruling.
Mamdani, a Queens assemblyman who won the Democratic primary, has long been a champion of James and called on his supporters Monday night to rally around the embattled prosecutor as she fights the federal charges.
“For years, you have fought the good fight for New Yorkers,” Mamdani said in his remarks. “And now it’s our time to fight for you.”
