(The Center Square) — A group of New York House Democrats are calling for an investigation of the Trump administration’s efforts to prosecute Attorney General Letitia James, blasting attempted indictments against her as “political retribution” for criticism of the president’s policies.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Rep. Jamie Raskin, along with other members of New York’s Democratic congressional delegation, criticizes her for targeting James and demands that her office preserve documents and correspondence related to the DOJ’s efforts to prosecute the state’s top law enforcement official.
“President Trump has long made it clear that he wants his enemies — including Ms. James — prosecuted by DOJ, promising “retribution” for his supporters and to throw his enemies in jail, ” the lawmakers wrote, pointing to Trump’s public statements about the prosecutions. “Your Department’s mission is to uphold the rule of law, not wield the law against perceived enemies.”
The letter, also signed by Reps. Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman and Ted Lieu, cited Bondi’s “interference” in Trump’s prosecution, her “illegal appointment of a loyalist with no prosecutorial experience as interim U.S. Attorney” and the “firing of career prosecutors” and the DOJ’s failed indictments of James “indicate brazen efforts to weaponize our nation’s justice system for partisan ends.”
The Justice Department has tried several times to secure an indictment against James as part of Trump’s efforts to prosecute top Democrats who have criticized the president’s agenda.
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 Trump and his company, which was later overturned by a New York appeals court. James has appealed the ruling.
James was indicted in October by a federal grand jury on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. She denied any wrongdoing and claimed the charges are politically motivated.
But a federal judge dismissed the indictment against James after ruling that Lindsey Halligan, the federal prosecutor handpicked by Trump to handle the case, was deemed unlawfully appointed.
Federal prosecutors tried at least twice after that to secure indictments against James, but grand juries refused to levy the charges. The lawmakers noted in their letter that the DOJ is “reportedly pursuing yet another investigation into Ms. James — apparently hellbent on securing a prosecution, regardless of the evidence.”
“The fact that both indictments were rejected by grand juries is strong evidence that your prosecutors — perhaps pressured by you or the Administration — are attempting to move forward with shoddy or nonexistent evidence — actions that can constitute prosecutorial misconduct,” they wrote.
