Letitia James, the New York attorney general, became one of Mr. Trump\u2019s most prominent adversaries when she sued his family business on behalf of the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head of a U.S. housing agency told prosecutors that Letitia James appeared to have falsified real estate records, a move that could be the start of an investigation of a key Trump adversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump administration has begun to scrutinize the real estate transactions of New York\u2019s attorney general, Letitia James, in what could be the opening move of President Trump\u2019s first investigation into one of his foremost adversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency sent a criminal referral letter to the Department of Justice this week, saying that Ms. James \u201cappeared to have falsified records\u201d related to properties she owns in Virginia and New York in order to receive favorable loan terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter was dated April 14, one day after Mr. Trump posted a story involving the claims against Ms. James on Truth Social and called her a \u201ccrook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is unclear whether the allegations against Ms. James, which have been touted online for weeks by Mr. Trump\u2019s allies, are substantive enough to merit criminal charges. Ms. James has been one of Mr. Trump\u2019s primary opponents since her office filed a lawsuit against him in 2022<\/a>, accusing him of overvaluing his assets by billions in order to receive favorable loan terms. The president has promised retribution against his political enemies.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n During the first several months of his second term, Mr. Trump mostly avoided the use of the justice system<\/a> to target his enemies. But last week, he signed presidential memos<\/a> singling out officials who opposed him during his first term and directing his agencies to scrutinize their actions. And the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, said she was opening an investigation into the state\u2019s governor.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The letter concerning Ms. James \u2014 who along with other state attorneys general has sued Mr. Trump\u2019s administration a dozen times since January \u2014 goes still further in the specificity of its allegations. It cites documents concerning two properties: a house in Norfolk, Va., that she bought with a niece in 2023, and a Brooklyn house she has owned for two dozen years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A spokesman for Ms. James said, \u201cAttorney General James is focused every single day on protecting New Yorkers, especially as this administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law and the Constitution. She will not be intimidated by bullies \u2014 no matter who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Virginia real estate lawyers said that the paperwork might be an issue if Ms. James had misrepresented the truth to the lender. But on a separate loan application form provided by the attorney general\u2019s office, Ms. James indicated that she did not intend to occupy the property as a primary residence. Her mortgage agreement did not require her to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The referral letter also accused Ms. James of misrepresenting the number of units in a Brooklyn home she purchased in 2001, possibly in order to receive better interest rates. The letter noted that while a January 2001 certificate of occupancy said the home had five units, Ms. James had consistently said that it had four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A spokesman from Ms. James\u2019s office said that a rider attached to the mortgage clarified that the building was four units and agreed that she had said so consistently in paperwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The month before Ms. James\u2019s lawsuit against Mr. Trump went to trial, anonymous complainants began to file documents with New York City\u2019s Department of Buildings, several of them related to the number of units in the home. None of the complaints have resulted in penalties, and one related to the unit number was referred to by the agency as a \u201cminor error.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the complaints, in October 2024, asked why Ms. James was \u201cNOT being prosecuted for fraud and filling false documents when other people have been persecuted for far less crimes,\u201d then added a pointed question: \u201ca Double Standard???\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Buildings Department has resolved nine of the complaints. The 10th, submitted late last month, remains open.Ms. James has been a target since Mr. Trump retook the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February, the president\u2019s attorney general, Pam Bondi, asked a working group<\/a> to scrutinize Ms. James\u2019s investigation into Mr. Trump. Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump\u2019s longtime adviser, referred to Ms. James as an \u201cexistential threat\u201d to the administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In subsequent months, muckraking websites began to raise questions about Ms. James\u2019s real estate history. This month, a blog called WhiteCollarFraud.com posted a story that included a document<\/a> from the Virginia real-estate transaction that involved Ms. James. The blog is run by Sam Antar, who in the 1990s pleaded guilty to fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Trump has posted Mr. Antar\u2019s story on Truth Social, as well as others relying on Mr. Antar\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLetitia James, a totally corrupt politician, should resign from her position as New York State Attorney General, IMMEDIATELY,\u201d Mr. Trump wrote on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following day, Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sent a series of social media messages. In one, he said that special agents at his agency worked \u201caround the clock to prosecute mortgage fraud \u2014 with DOJ and other relevant law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is no room for fraud in our mortgage markets. None,\u201d he wrote, adding \u201cNo one and no company is above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is a phrase that Ms. James herself has often relied on in describing the president, who has been her primary focus, legally and politically, for the better part of a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, Mr. Trump was midway through his first term and deeply unpopular in his home state, where Ms. James was running to become attorney general. The fight against him became a key pillar of her campaign, as she pledged to sue him and called him \u201cillegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her investigation into Mr. Trump began months after she was sworn in. For three years, her office interviewed more than 65 witnesses as lawyers questioned whether Mr. Trump had manipulated the value of his assets to reap benefits from lenders. In 2022, Ms. James filed her lawsuit, accusing Mr. Trump of overvaluing his riches by billions of dollars.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere has to be some limit on what the attorney general can do in interfering in these private transactions,\u201d said one of the judges, Peter Moulton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court has yet to rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Trump\u2019s lawyers \u2014 including Ms. Habba, now New Jersey\u2019s U.S. attorney \u2014 cried foul on television and in legal filings, calling judges\u2019 attention to Ms. James\u2019s history of antagonism and arguing that her investigation amounted to political persecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But neither the state judge oversseeing the case nor a federal judge who evaluated it found that Ms. James\u2019s comments during her campaign provided a basis to suspend her investigation or to dismiss her lawsuit. Eventually, the state judge, Arthur F. Engoron, threatened to penalize Mr. Trump\u2019s lawyers for continuing to argue that the case was politically motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawsuit led to a trial that began in October 2023 and lasted months, with Justice Engoron presiding as both judge and de facto jury, as required by the statute under which the lawsuit was brought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. James\u2019s lawyers sought to demonstrate that Mr. Trump had used falsified assets to hoodwink lenders into providing his businesses with more generous loan terms. The president\u2019s lawyers argued that the private transactions had taken place between equally sophisticated actors, and that it was improper for the state attorney general to interfere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Engoron was persuaded by Ms. James\u2019s case. In early 2024, he found Mr. Trump liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordered him to pay a penalty that, with interest, exceeded $450 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Trump appealed, and in oral arguments in a New York appeals court, some judges appeared sympathetic to his lawyers\u2019 arguments.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n A press representative for the Federal Housing Finance Agency declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When purchasing the Virginia residence, Ms. James signed notarized paperwork attesting that she would use it as a principal residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump\u2019s longest-serving political adviser, has been one of several right-wing critics to point out that she did not live in Virginia and accused her in heated language of committing mortgage fraud. On Tuesday, Mr. Stone directed a social media post at Ms. James, warning, \u201cLook for the F.B.I. on your doorstep one morning soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Virginia real estate lawyers said that the paperwork might be an issue if Ms. James had misrepresented the truth to the lender. But on a separate loan application form provided by the attorney general\u2019s office, Ms. James indicated that she did not intend to occupy the property as a primary residence. Her mortgage agreement did not require her to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The referral letter also accused Ms. James of misrepresenting the number of units in a Brooklyn home she purchased in 2001, possibly in order to receive better interest rates. The letter noted that while a January 2001 certificate of occupancy said the home had five units, Ms. James had consistently said that it had four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A spokesman from Ms. James\u2019s office said that a rider attached to the mortgage clarified that the building was four units and agreed that she had said so consistently in paperwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The month before Ms. James\u2019s lawsuit against Mr. Trump went to trial, anonymous complainants began to file documents with New York City\u2019s Department of Buildings, several of them related to the number of units in the home. None of the complaints have resulted in penalties, and one related to the unit number was referred to by the agency as a \u201cminor error.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the complaints, in October 2024, asked why Ms. James was \u201cNOT being prosecuted for fraud and filling false documents when other people have been persecuted for far less crimes,\u201d then added a pointed question: \u201ca Double Standard???\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Buildings Department has resolved nine of the complaints. The 10th, submitted late last month, remains open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. James has been a target since Mr. Trump retook the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February, the president\u2019s attorney general, Pam Bondi, asked a working group<\/a> to scrutinize Ms. James\u2019s investigation into Mr. Trump. Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump\u2019s longtime adviser, referred to Ms. James as an \u201cexistential threat\u201d to the administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In subsequent months, muckraking websites began to raise questions about Ms. James\u2019s real estate history. This month, a blog called WhiteCollarFraud.com posted a story that included a document<\/a> from the Virginia real-estate transaction that involved Ms. James. The blog is run by Sam Antar, who in the 1990s pleaded guilty to fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Trump has posted Mr. Antar\u2019s story on Truth Social, as well as others relying on Mr. Antar\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLetitia James, a totally corrupt politician, should resign from her position as New York State Attorney General, IMMEDIATELY,\u201d Mr. Trump wrote on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following day, Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sent a series of social media messages. In one, he said that special agents at his agency worked \u201caround the clock to prosecute mortgage fraud \u2014 with DOJ and other relevant law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is no room for fraud in our mortgage markets. None,\u201d he wrote, adding \u201cNo one and no company is above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is a phrase that Ms. James herself has often relied on in describing the president, who has been her primary focus, legally and politically, for the better part of a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, Mr. Trump was midway through his first term and deeply unpopular in his home state, where Ms. James was running to become attorney general. The fight against him became a key pillar of her campaign, as she pledged to sue him and called him \u201cillegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her investigation into Mr. Trump began months after she was sworn in. For three years, her office interviewed more than 65 witnesses as lawyers questioned whether Mr. Trump had manipulated the value of his assets to reap benefits from lenders. In 2022, Ms. James filed her lawsuit, accusing Mr. Trump of overvaluing his riches by billions of dollars.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Trump\u2019s lawyers \u2014 including Ms. Habba, now New Jersey\u2019s U.S. attorney \u2014 cried foul on television and in legal filings, calling judges\u2019 attention to Ms. James\u2019s history of antagonism and arguing that her investigation amounted to political persecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But neither the state judge overseeing the case nor a federal judge who evaluated it found that Ms. James\u2019s comments during her campaign provided a basis to suspend her investigation or to dismiss her lawsuit. Eventually, the state judge, Arthur F. Engoron, threatened to penalize Mr. Trump\u2019s lawyers for continuing to argue that the case was politically motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawsuit led to a trial that began in October 2023 and lasted months, with Justice Engoron presiding as both judge and de facto jury, as required by the statute under which the lawsuit was brought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. James\u2019s lawyers sought to demonstrate that Mr. Trump had used falsified assets to hoodwink lenders into providing his businesses with more generous loan terms. The president\u2019s lawyers argued that the private transactions had taken place between equally sophisticated actors, and that it was improper for the state attorney general to interfere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Engoron was persuaded by Ms. James\u2019s case. In early 2024, he found Mr. Trump liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordered him to pay a penalty that, with interest, exceeded $450 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n