DOJ Opens Investigation Into NY AG James Over Trump Suit (2)

The Department of Justice is investigating New York Attorney General Letitia James over the $454 million civil fraud case she won against President Donald Trump before he was elected.

Justice Department officials have convened a grand jury and have sent subpoenas to James’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous discussing a confidential investigation. The subpoena also seeks information on James’s case against the National Rifle Association, said one of the people.

The investigation, which is in early stages, focuses on whether the fraud case violated Trump’s legal rights, the people said. The probe is being run out of Albany, New York. The investigation was earlier reported by the New York Times.

“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,” said Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for James. “If prosecutors carry out this improper tactic and are genuinely interested in the truth, we are ready and waiting with the facts and the law.”

Separately, Attorney General Pam Bondi tapped Ed Martin, a conservative activist who served briefly as the interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia before failing to secure Senate confirmation, would work on ongoing probes of both James and California Senator Adam Schiff.

In those cases, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte asked the Justice Department to investigate whether the two Democrats committed mortgage fraud based on the residence status they claimed on applications.

Both Schiff and James have denied wrongdoing in the mortgage cases. Targeting Schiff, who managed Trump’s first Senate impeachment trial over his withholding of aid to Ukraine while he sought an investigation into the Biden family, is likely to spark a firestorm among congressional Democrats.

Schiff has served as one of Trump’s chief antagonists ever since, making him a prodigious fundraiser and helping him easily win his Senate seat last year.

President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Schiff and others who served on the special House committee who investigated the January 6th, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters in an effort to head off an effort at revenge by Trump.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. A spokesperson for the New York attorney general’s office said they “stand strongly behind our successful litigation” of Trump’s businesses and the NRA and “any patronization of the justice system should disturb every American.”

James, a Democrat, has also been one of Trump’s toughest critics. The fraud case, which Trump has appealed, was a major win for James after she launched a three-year investigation into the Trump Organization after allegations that Trump exaggerated his wealth to dupe banks.

(Adds additional details in paragraphs 7-9.)

--With assistance from Patricia Hurtado, Chris Strohm, Derek Wallbank and Steven T. Dennis.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Hadriana Lowenkron in Washington at hlowenkron@bloomberg.net;
Myles Miller in New York at mmiller899@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Sara Forden, Kevin Whitelaw

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