Justice Department subpoenas Letitia James about Trump fraud probe
The Justice Department is intensifying its legal battle against New York Attorney General Letitia James, issuing at least two subpoenas to James in recent days, according to three people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an investigation.
The investigation of the president’s foe is being run out of the Northern District of New York, which covers the state capital of Albany, according to two of the people familiar with the probe.
One of the subpoenas focused on James’s successful civil fraud case against President Donald Trump and his real estate empire, the people familiar with the probe said. A judge ordered in 2024 that Trump and his company pay more than $450 million in fines and interest. A second subpoena suggested that the Justice Department is looking into James’s high-profile litigation against the National Rifle Association, which led to court-mandated reforms of the group, the people said.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
“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 Geoff Burgan, a spokesman for the state attorney general.
“Investigating the fraud case Attorney General James won against President Trump and his businesses has to be the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign,” James’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement.
The latest investigation appears unrelated to a Justice Department probe into James over alleged mortgage fraud in Virginia. Federal officials are investigating whether James lied on loan documents for a house she purchased in Norfolk in 2023. In that paperwork, she said the home would be her primary residence even as she served as attorney general in New York. Her attorney has described those errors as honest mistakes.
James has been a frequent target of Trump’s criticism since at least 2018. When she was running for attorney general, James promised voters that she would investigate the president—comments that Trump and his lawyers later brought up repeatedly to argue that she planned to target him unfairly.
She obtained the $450 million judgment against Trump last year in penalties plus interest for a long-running fraud scheme that involved purposely misrepresenting the value of properties and other assets to get better loan and insurance rates.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron wrote in his February 2024 bench trial decision that Trump and company executives, including his two oldest sons, used “blatantly false financial data” in official dealings with lenders and insurance firms.
Trump is appealing the decision, and interest on the fines continue to grow the longer he doesn’t pay them.
His appeal was argued in September, and a decision has not yet been issued.
Trump has long decried what he’s described as the “weaponization” of law enforcement to prosecute him and conservative allies during the Biden administration.
Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Justice Department has launched a task force to investigate Trump allegations and has initiated criminal probes against several of those he considers his political foes, including former FBI director James B. Comey, ex-CIA director John Brennan and James.
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