George Washington law professor and Fox News legal expert Jonathan Turley was floored by a Trump Administration official’s letter referring New York Attorney General Letitia James to the Department of Justice for potential criminal charges, calling the allegations “damning” and “pretty straightforward.”
The criminal referral came from Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte, who outlined the allegations in a letter addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The letter, which was reviewed by Fox News and the New York Post, alleged that James had “falsified records” to get home loans for a property in Virginia. James had listed the property as her “principal residence” in 2023 despite serving as the attorney general of New York.
The letter further revealed that James previously purchased a Brooklyn home in 2001, but has “consistently misrepresented the same property as only having four units in both building permit applications and numerous mortgage documents and applications,” the letter noted. This could have allowed James to receive a lower mortgage rate and led to lower payments under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).
George Washington law professor and Fox News legal expert Jonathan Turley was floored by a Trump Administration official’s letter referring New York Attorney General Letitia James to the Department of Justice for potential criminal charges, calling the allegations “damning” and “pretty straightforward.”
The criminal referral came from Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte, who outlined the allegations in a letter addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The letter, which was reviewed by Fox News and the New York Post, alleged that James had “falsified records” to get home loans for a property in Virginia. James had listed the property as her “principal residence” in 2023 despite serving as the attorney general of New York.
The letter further revealed that James previously purchased a Brooklyn home in 2001, but has “consistently misrepresented the same property as only having four units in both building permit applications and numerous mortgage documents and applications,” the letter noted. This could have allowed James to receive a lower mortgage rate and led to lower payments under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).
“Ms. James, for both properties listed above, appears to have falsified records in order to meet certain lending requirements and receive favorable loan terms,” Pulte wrote.
The alleged criminal act occurred just weeks before James began her civil fraud trial against the Trump Administration, which was accused of undervaluing a number of properties, resulting in a $454 million judgement.
“Well, obviously, the irony is perfectly crushing. This is a person who prosecuted Trump for everything short of ripping a label off a mattress. And among the charges that were brought in New York, in not just the civil but the criminal case, was making false or misleading statements to financial institutions,” he said.
“And one of these sections, Section 1014 of the federal code, is prosecuted. It took me about 60 seconds of a search to find cases that the Department of Justice brought against people who falsely claimed that property was their principal residence in order to get loans. So this is well-tread areas for the Justice Department.”
Turley went on to note that if the standard James created to go after Trump — something she campaigned on doing — there would be “little question” over whether she should face criminal charges. “This seems pretty straightforward,” he said.
Elsewhere in the letter, Pulte provided documents showing that James purchased another property with her father as a co-signer, but falsely listed the pair as “husband and wife” in 1983 and 2000. “While this was a long time ago, it raises serious concerns about the validity of Ms. James representations on mortgage applications,” he wrote.
This, Turley explained, appears to indicate a pattern of “misleading” statements from James. “So there’s a lot of those questions. And as you know, the Supreme Court just stated earlier in March in a case called Thompson, that they wanna see knowing false statements under sections like 1014, not just misleading statements. These are misleading statements,” Turley continued.
“Either it’s your principal residence or it’s not. Either you’re married to your father or he’s your father. So they can get a really this can satisfy the Thompson standard.”
Retired NYPD inspector told Fox News that he first reported the allegations against James on his Substack almost 10 weeks ago.
The documents presented by Sam Antar, and the research he has done, appear entirely authentic,” Mauro said. “In which case, AG James appears to have engaged in the very sort of fraud which she alleged in her ludicrous case against Donald Trump. Let’s see now, if indeed, as AG James has stated herself, nobody is above the law.”
