President Trump’s Department of Justice Friday issued a subpoena to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office related to a new investigation over the civil fraud case she won against him, the same day prosecutors stepped up a separate mortgage fraud probe against her.
A subpoena from the acting U.S. Attorney in Albany demanded information about James’ successful uit against Trump and his family real estate firm for overvaluing assets to gain favorable financing terms. The DOJ is pursuing the matter as a civil rights violation.
Attorney General Pam Bondi also separately appointed a “special attorney” to probe unspecified mortgage fraud allegations against James, several media outlets reported Friday.
Ed Martin, an ultra-conservative legal activist and onetime interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., was tapped to investigate the mortgage allegations against James, along with similar claims against Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), another vocal Trump critic.
The legal broadsides against James escalate Trump’s ongoing efforts to take revenge against his perceived adversaries, including those like James who had investigated him after he lost the 2020 election and before his return to the White House.
A spokesman for the state attorney general’s office declined to confirm the subpoenas but issued a statement denouncing “any weaponization of the justice system.”
“We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights,” said Geoff Burgan, the spokesman.
James’ personal attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, slammed the feds.
“(It) has to be the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign,” Lowell said.
Trump repeatedly railed against James before, during and after the trial, calling her a Trump-hating Democratic stooge, a corrupt failed candidate for governor and worse.
Jan. 6, 2024: AG Office: ‘Inescapable’ evidence of… Fraud
New York Daily News Front page of the New York Daily News for Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024: AG Office: ‘Inescapable’ evidence of… Fraud- James pushes to ban Trump from doing business in New York; Ex-Prez and associates should have to pay back $370 million plus interest. State Attorney General Letitia James wrapped up her case against the Trump Organization on Friday, hoping to put former President Donald Trump out of business in the state.
The president is appealing the $454 million judgment James won in the lawsuit, in which a judge found he defrauded banks by inflating the value of his properties, including his golf clubs and penthouse in Trump Tower.
Along with the Trump civil fraud case, a second subpoena to James’ office sought information related to her successful civil suit against the National Rifle Association, which focused on extravagant spending by Wayne LaPierre, the longtime head of the gun-rights group.
James asked for the dissolution of the NRA in that case, but a judge said the evidence did not back such an extreme punishment.
Originally Published: August 8, 2025 at 2:26 PM EDT
