New York Attorney General Letitia James will appear in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, Friday morning to be arraigned on a two-count indictment stemming from statements she allegedly made about the nature of a second home she purchased in 2020.
James’s arraignment is the latest in a string of prosecutions brought against the president’s perceived political foes, despite objections from career prosecutors — some of whom have since been fired or resigned.
James was indicted on two federal counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
The indictment stems from her 2020 purchase of a home in Norfolk, Virginia, where prosecutors allege that she misled a bank about the nature of the residence in order to obtain more favorable loan conditions.
James, for her part, has vehemently denied wrongdoing, and is expected to plead not guilty.
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“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system,” James said in a statement after she was indicted.
“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost,” she added.
Her indictment, like the indictment of FBI director James Comey, was presented to a grand jury by former White House aide Lindsey Halligan, whom Trump installed as the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last month.
Trump, in September, said he would install Halligan as the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, replacing interim attorney Erik Siebert, who resigned under pressure to indict both Comey and James.
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James’s indictment, like Comey’s, has touched off intense backlash and concerns of weaponization within the Justice Department’s ranks during Trump’s second presidential term.
Both cases have both sparked the resignations or firings of several career officials in the Eastern District of Virginia, including in the Norfolk office, where two assistant U.S. attorneys were fired for reportedly voicing opposition to bringing James’s case.
Halligan will be joined in court Friday by a Missouri-based federal prosecutor, Roger Keller, according to court filings.
James’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, told the court they have retained the services of Andrew Bosse, a former assistant U.S. attorney based in Norfolk who formerly headed up the office’s criminal division.
The case against James comes after she successfully brought a civil fraud case against President Donald Trump last year.
After the arraignment, it is likely that she will file a motion to dismiss her case for vindictive and selective prosecution, following similar steps taken by Comey’s legal team in Alexandria earlier this week.
Lowell, her attorney, has described the case against her as “improper political retribution,” and vowed they would “fight these charges in every process allowed in the law.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment on the case, or whether Halligan or Keller would be joined by any other federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia.
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