A lawyer representing New York’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General Letitia James, said Friday that the news of the Trump administration’s investigation into James and her successful legal cases against President Donald Trump amounted to “the most blatant and desperate example” of the president’s “political retribution campaign.”
In recent days, The Washington Post reported Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a subpoena to James as part of an investigation into whether the attorney general, a longtime adversary of Trump, violated the president’s civil rights when she successfully sued him and his real estate business for fraud.
A second subpoena was related to James’ litigation against the National Rifle Association, in which a New York jury found last year that former NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and other executives had engaged in rampant corruption.
The civil rights statute that the Trump administration is reportedly using to investigate James’ case against the president is typically used in cases related to law enforcement officers discriminating against or mistreating people based on race, religion, sex, or ethnicity. According to The New York Times, the DOJ is arguing that James used her law enforcement authority to deprive Trump of his rights.
James filed a civil fraud case against Trump and the Trump Organization in 2022 and won a $450 million judgment against the president in penalties plus interest. The interest the president owes has grown to half a billion dollars as he has refused to pay and has appealed the ruling.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engeron said that Trump and his company’s executives were “incapable of admitting the error of their ways” regarding the “blatantly false financial data” they used to misrepresent of the value of their properties, which allowed them to get better loan and insurance rates.
The Democratic candidate in the New York City mayoral race, state Rep. Zohran Mamdani (D-36), expressed little surprise that Trump was apparently retaliating against the attorney general who won against him in court.
“Attorney General James took on Trump’s fraud and the NRA’s rampant corruption—and won both cases,” said Mamdani. “So it’s little wonder that Trump’s politicized DOJ is now coming after her. The people of New York stand with their lawyer and champion.”
The subpoenas were issued months after the DOJ appeared to try another tactic to punish James when it opened a criminal investigation into alleged mortgage fraud, accusing the attorney general of lying on loan documents for a home that she purchased in Virginia and saying the home would be her primary residence. James’ attorneys have said the error was an honest mistake.
Dana Nessel, the Democratic attorney general of Michigan, came to James’ defense on Friday and condemned “the depths to which Trump and his cronies will go to exact vengeance upon anyone who has dared to hold him accountable.”
But the subpoenas, said Nessel, are not just a concern for James.
“Americans should know and understand how deeply compromised our federal law enforcement agencies are,” she said. “If this can happen to AG James, it can happen to anyone.”
Geoff Burgan, a spokesperson for James, agreed that “any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American.”
“We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights,” said Burgan.
Abbe Lowell, the attorney general’s lawyer, said that “weaponizing the Department of Justice to try to punish an elected official for doing her job is an attack on the rule of law and a dangerous escalation by this administration.”
“If prosecutors carry out this improper tactic and are genuinely interested in the truth,” said Lowell, “we are ready and waiting with facts and the law.”