Letitia James

Subterms

    Latest story

    188 Shares18 Views

    ‘Substantial’ federal layoffs begin as Congress remains deadlocked over funding to end shutdown – live

    by

    The Guardian has independently confirmed that reductions in force (RIFs) are under way at the following departments and agencies:

    Department of Education

    Department of Health and Human Services

    Department of Homeland Security (specifically the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)

    Department of the Treasury
    Certain agencies haven’t immediately responded to the Guardian’s request for comment, but other media outlets have reported layoffs are expected at the following:

    Environmental Protection Agency

    Department of Energy

    Department of the Interior

    Department of Housing and Urban Development
    Donald Trump just started an Oval Office announcement on a deal with the British-based drug maker Asta Zeneca, for a “most-favored-nation” drug pricing model aimed at making prescription medicines more affordable, by boasting that he would have struck the deal sooner, but “we were interrupted by a rigged election”.Trump went on to repeat the wildly false claim that the discounted prices for American consumers would reduce the price of prescription drugs by up to 1,000%.As Daniel Dale of CNN has explained: “Cutting drug prices by more than 100% would mean that Americans would get paid to acquire their medications rather than paying for them.” A health economist, Timothy McBride, told the network Trump’s claims are “just not logical,” since a 500% price reduction would mean that a drug that now costs $100 would cost be available for free, with consumers given a $400 rebate.The actual deal includes cutting prices for the government’s Medicaid health plan for low-income Americans and discounted prices through a “TrumpRx” website the president said.AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot stood near Trump in the gold-clad Oval Office as the president made the announcement.Pfizer previously agreed to drop prescription drug prices in the Medicaid program for lower-income Americans to what it charges in other developed countries in exchange for relief from tariffs threatened by Trump.Americans currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere or face stiff tariffs.Last month, he threatened 100% tariffs on drug makers, increasing pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to agree to price cuts and shift manufacturing to the US.Writing on his social media platform, Donald Trump just announced that, in response to what he called China’s “extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade” and new export restrictions, he intends to “impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying” starting on 1 November.The same day, he adds, “we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software.”That date is after Trump’s planned meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.Our colleague Callum Jones has more on the latest friction in Trump’s trade war with China.The wave of layoffs at federal agencies has reportedly reached the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) now, according to the PBS correspondent Lisa Desjardins.Federal prosecutors in Maryland could seek criminal charges next week against Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, report the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Carol Leonnig and her colleague Ken Dilanian for MSNBC.A grand jury in Maryland has been hearing evidence related to claims that Bolton, a former ally of Trump turned harsh critic, improperly kept classified national security information in his Maryland home.The journalists also report that Ed Martin, a Republican operative who served briefly as Trump’s acting US attorney in the District of Columbia now running the justice department’s “Weaponization Working Group”, has met multiple times with the Trump-appointed acting US attorney in Maryland, Kelly Hayes, on the Bolton case.An indictment on Bolton for illegally retaining classified documents would be the third of a Trump critic in recent weeks, and would echo the indictment of New York’s attorney general, Tish James, in accusing critics of the president of committing crimes he was indicted for after his first term.I’ve been chatting to Jessica Roth, a former federal prosecutor in the southern district of New York, about the indictment of Letitia James.Roth said it was “extremely distressing” to see prosecutions brought against the president’s perceived political enemies.“I can’t say that I was surprised that the department [under attorney general Pam Bondi] pursued these charges against Tish James,” she added. “That doesn’t lessen my distress … particularly in light of what had been longstanding Department of Justice policy not to pursue an indictment unless prosecutors were convinced that they would be able to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.”Lindsey Halligan, the handpicked and newly installed US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, has pursued the charges against James and former FBI director James Comey, and Roth notes that we could see a wider effort to bring charges against the president’s adversaries in districts throughout the country that are now run by Trump-friendly prosecutors.Much like the charges brought against Comey, Roth underscored that the crimes that James is being accused of are very difficult to prove “even under the best stances” because they require proof of “criminal intent as opposed to an honest mistake or negligence”.The Guardian has independently confirmed that reductions in force (RIFs) are under way at the following departments and agencies:

    Department of Education

    Department of Health and Human Services

    Department of Homeland Security (specifically the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)

    Department of the Treasury
    Certain agencies haven’t immediately responded to the Guardian’s request for comment, but other media outlets have reported layoffs are expected at the following:

    Environmental Protection Agency

    Department of Energy

    Department of the Interior

    Department of Housing and Urban Development
    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed to the Guardian that employees across “multiple divisions” have received reduction-in-force notices. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said this was “a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown”.He added that HHS under the Biden administration “became a bloated bureaucracy, growing its budget by 38% and its workforce by 17%”.Nixon said that all employees receiving RIF notices were “designated non-essential by their respective divisions”.“HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda,” he added.The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal government workers, has condemned the mass layoffs announced by the White House budget office.“It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country,” said Everett Kelley, the union’s president.AFGE has already filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the firings, and a hearing is set for Thursday, 16 October. “We will not stop fighting until every reduction-in-force notice is rescinded,” Kelley added.The Department of Education has also confirmed to the Guardian that their employees will be affected by the reductions in force.An office of management and budget (OMB) spokesperson told the Guardian that the reductions in force that have begun are “substantial”.The official didn’t confirm an exact number, but we’re bringing you the latest as we hear from different agencies and departments about how they stand to be affected. More

    More stories

    • 138 Shares38 Views

      in US Politics

      The mortgage fraud case against Letitia James is ‘bupkis’, experts say

      by

      A prosecutor installed by Donald Trump may have been able to secure an indictment against the New York attorney general, Letitia James, but actually obtaining a conviction may be an uphill battle, legal experts say.Even before a grand jury handed down the indictment on Thursday, there was already deep skepticism about possible charges. Career prosecutors in the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Virginia had looked at accusations James committed mortgage fraud and concluded there was no probable cause to charge the case. Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s handpicked interim US attorney, nonetheless went ahead and presented the case to the grand jury. Her decision to do so reportedly caught top justice department officials off-guard.The indictment handed down on Thursday charges James with bank fraud and making a false statement when she secured a mortgage to buy a second home in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020. As part of the purchase, James signed a rider that indicated she would use it as her second home and prohibited her from renting it out, according to the indictment. James proceeded to then rent out the home, prosecutors allege. By lying on the mortgage statement, prosecutors say, James secured a better mortgage rate and a seller credit that saved her about $18,933 over the life of the loan.“In this case, prosecutors will be required to show that at the moment James signed the mortgage paperwork, she was aware of the provision regarding a secondary home, that she intended to use it for some different purpose, and that she intended to obtain a financial benefit as a result of her deceit,” said Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan. “That can be very difficult for a prosecutor to do because we cannot read other people’s minds. Anyone who has ever participated in a mortgage closing is familiar with the daunting pile of papers they put in front of you.”The second-home rider James signed does not prohibit renting the home outright, Adam Levitin, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote in a blogpost. Instead, the rider prevents the owner from giving control over rental decisions to someone else. The agreement also only imposes the restriction starting one year after the agreement. The indictment made public on Thursday does not say when James rented the home or for how long.The rider also includes an exemption for “extenuating circumstances”, Levitin noted, pointing out that the mortgage was obtained in August 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.“I’m unaware of the federal government having previously charged anyone for fraud based on renting out a second home,” Levitin wrote in the post on Credit Slips. “It’s clear why the career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia refused to bring a case: James doesn’t appear to have made any misrepresentation in her mortgage because the mortgage does not directly prohibit rentals.”James has forcefully denied the charges. Last month, Trump publicly admonished the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to indict her, along with the former FBI director James Comey and California senator Adam Schiff.“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties,” James said in a statement on Thursday evening.Trump’s public statements, combined with the conclusion of career prosecutors about a lack of probable cause, make it likely James will bring a selective prosecution argument to try to get the case thrown out.“Normally, a claim [that] this is a vindictive prosecution does not work,” said John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School. But, he added: “You don’t usually have the president calling for these sort of things.”The charges against James come as William Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has deployed mortgage filings to attack Trump’s rivals. In April, Pulte, a staunch Trump ally, sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice regarding two different real estate transactions involving James. Neither of the transactions in the referral were the ones actually charged this week.Pulte has also accused Schiff of mortgage fraud as he has the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump is trying to remove from the central bank. In Cook’s case, Pulte has made an allegation similar to the one against James, alleging she rented out a property she indicated was her second home on mortgage documents.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAlso unusual in James’s case is the amount of money she is said to have benefited from because of the fraud. Typically, investigators in the inspector general’s office at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which handles mortgage fraud investigations, pursue cases where there are substantial losses to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, government-sponsored enterprises that support the housing market by guaranteeing mortgages.Even the most junior prosecutor in a US attorney’s office would turn down a case with a loss amount that low, said Jacqueline Kelly, a former federal prosecutor in New York who is now a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner.“It would never be signed off on by a supervisor with a loss amount that low,” she said. The low loss amount could also bolster James’s claims of selective prosecution. “When she has to prove that someone similarly situated would not have been prosecuted, she is on really strong ground there because if you look at other cases charged under these same statutes, you’re not going to find one similar to this at all.”While the length of James’s loan is not clear, if it was a standard 30-year mortgage she would have defrauded the government out of about $633 each year.“That’s bupkis,” said one former federal prosecutor who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid professional repercussions. “Are you really going to believe when you get up there that the attorney general of New York would commit this willfulness over $600 a year?“It’s a race as to whether this is weaker than the Comey case or stronger because they’re the two weakest cases I’ve ever seen in my life.” More

    • 163 Shares56 Views

      in US Politics

      Ex-FBI director James Comey to appear in court on lying to Congress charge

      by

      The former FBI director James Comey is set to make his first appearance in court on Wednesday in connection with federal charges that he lied to Congress in 2020.Comey will be booked and fingerprinted, which is normal practice for defendants, at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, before being arraigned and formally read the charges against him by US district judge Michael Nachmanoff. Nachmanoff was appointed to the federal bench by Joe Biden in 2021.The FBI has reportedly been weighing whether to submit Comey to a “perp walk” in which they would parade him in front of media cameras. An FBI agent was reportedly relieved of duty for refusing to participate in such an effort.The brief indictment handed down by a federal grand jury on 25 September accused Comey of making a false statement and obstructing a congressional investigation in connection with his September 2020 testimony to Congress. While the details of the charge remain unclear, they appear to be related to his claim that he never authorized anyone in the FBI to be an anonymous source in news stories. “I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial. And keep the faith,” Comey said in a video statement the night the charges were filed.The case against Comey marks a significant step in Donald Trump’s effort to politicize the justice department and punish his political enemies. Even though the attorney general and top justice department officials are political appointees, the department has typically operated at arm’s length from the White House in order to preserve independent decision-making necessary to uphold the rule of law. Trump has upended that norm and has said more charges are coming.Trump fired Comey in 2017 and has fumed at the former FBI director for years for his role in investigating connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Comey’s firing eventually prompted the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to take over the investigation. Mueller’s final report detailed numerous instances in which Trump attempted to influence the investigation.Trump forced out Erik Siebert, the top federal prosecutor in the eastern district of Virginia, after Siebert determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to bring charges against Letitia James, New York’s attorney general. At Trump’s request, the justice department replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who was part of Trump’s personal legal team and has no prosecutorial experience.Career prosecutors in the eastern district of Virginia reportedly presented Halligan with a memo outlining why charges against Comey were not warranted. In an unusual move, Halligan presented the case herself to a federal grand jury, which handed down the indictment just a few days after she started on the job.No career prosecutors from the eastern district of Virginia have entered an appearance in the case. Instead, two prosecutors from the eastern district of North Carolina, Nathaniel Lemons and Gabriel Diaz, will join Halligan in handling the case.Two other prosecutors in the eastern district of Virginia have been fired since the charges against Comey were filed. The prosecutors, Maya Song, a top Siebert deputy, and Michael Ben’Ary, a top national security prosecutor, both at one point had worked under Lisa Monaco, a top official in the justice department under the Biden administration.Trump has also put pressure on the office to file charges against James over specious allegations that the New York attorney general committed mortgage fraud.“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump told Bondi in a brazen 20 September post on Truth Social, asking her to bring charges against Comey, James, and California senator Adam Schiff. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”Elizabeth Yusi, a top prosecutor in the office, plans to present the case to Halligan soon that there is no probable cause to file charges against James. Colleagues expect Yusi to be fired. More

    • 125 Shares67 Views

      in US Politics

      US attorney resists pressure from Trump to prosecute Letitia James

      by

      A career federal prosecutor in Virginia has told colleagues she does not believe there is probable cause to file criminal mortgage fraud charges against New York attorney general Letitia James, according to a person familiar with the matter.The prosecutor, Elizabeth Yusi, oversees major criminal cases in the Norfolk office for the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia and plans to soon present her conclusion to Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally, who was installed as the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia last month. Yusi’s thinking was first reported by MSNBC on Monday.The justice department declined to comment. The US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia did not return a request for comment.The case sets up another high profile confrontation between the justice department and Trump, who has fired attorneys who have refused to punish his enemies. Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience, was put in the role at the urging of Trump after her predecessor concluded there wasn’t probable cause to file criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director. Halligan personally presented the case against Comey to a grand jury after she was appointed and secured a two-count indictment.Trump has openly asked Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, to prosecute James, who led a civil fraud case against the president that led to a $500m fine, which was recently overturned by a New York state appellate court.William Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency head and a staunch Trump ally, made a criminal referral of James to the justice department in April, alleging she may have committed mortgage fraud. Pulte pointed to mortgage documents related to a 2023 Norfolk, Virginia, home James helped purchase for her niece in which James appeared to indicate on a document she intended to use the home as her primary residence. James was serving as the attorney general of New York at the time.Prosecutors empaneled a grand jury in May to investigate, but struggled to build a case against James, despite pressure from Trump allies. Emails from the time of the home purchase and other mortgage documents show James clearly indicating that she did not intend for the home to be her primary residence. That evidence makes it difficult for prosecutors to prove that James knowingly lied on the mortgage documents.Multiple prosecutors in the eastern district of Virginia have either been fired or resigned in recent weeks as Trump has increased pressure on the office to bring charges against Comey and James.Erik Siebert, Halligan’s predecessor, resigned on 19 September after facing pressure from Trump to file charges. Maya Song, a top Siebert deputy, was also fired in late September. Michael Ben’Ary, a top national security prosecutor in the office, was also fired last week after Julie Kelly, a pro-Trump media personality, falsely accused him of working on the Comey case.“The leadership is more concerned with punishing the President’s perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security,” he wrote in his farewell letter to colleagues.“Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be contingent on what someone in the Department of Justice sees in their social media feed that day.” More

    • 163 Shares175 Views

      in US Politics

      White House aide sworn in as interim US attorney after Trump fired predecessor

      by

      Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide, was sworn in on Monday as the interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia after Donald Trump removed her predecessor who declined to bring charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.The appointment of Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience and was the most junior lawyer on Trump’s personal legal team, alarmed current and former prosecutors about political pressure to indict the president’s political enemies regardless of the strength of the evidence.For months, federal prosecutors investigated whether there was sufficient evidence to act on referrals by Trump officials at other agencies against Comey, for lying to Congress about matters related to the 2016 election, and against James, for mortgage fraud over a house she bought her niece.The prosecutors ultimately concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against either Comey or James, leading Trump to issue a series of extraordinary social media posts over the weekend demanding that the justice department seek criminal charges regardless.Halligan was sworn in shortly after noon by Pam Bondi, the attorney general, at justice department headquarters, replacing Erik Siebert, who had declined to bring the prosecutions. Interim US attorneys can only serve for 120 days but Trump is expected to submit her nomination to the Senate for a full term.Halligan’s lack of prosecutorial experience was notable given the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia occupies one of the most sensitive posts at the justice department and oversees around 300 lawyers and staff. With the Pentagon and the CIA nearby, the office also handles sensitive national security cases.The officials who have historically been appointed as US attorney in the eastern district of Virginia have extensive experience in that office. The US attorney during Trump’s first term, G Zachary Terwilliger, had been a prosecutor there for years before being elevated to the top job.Before joining the White House, Halligan was an insurance lawyer in Florida and worked for the Save America Pac before joining the Trump legal team as the most junior lawyer, helping to draft briefs in the federal criminal case over Trump’s mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.A White House spokesperson defended Halligan’s appointment, saying in a statement: “Lindsey Halligan is exceptionally qualified to serve as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. She has a proven track record of success and will serve the country with honor and distinction.”Two of Halligan’s former colleagues on the Trump legal team on the classified documents case credited her as a fast learner who provided meaningful contributions in filings. Generally, they said, they were happy to have her on the team.Halligan was at Mar-a-Lago when the FBI executed a search warrant to retrieve classified documents and, as the Florida-barred lawyer on Trump’s team, she was responsible for filing a request to have a so-called special master conduct a review of the materials that had been seized.According to a person familiar with the episode, Halligan found her account on the Pacer was not set up to file the special master request electronically and had to deliver the brief in person.During the drive from Ft Lauderdale, where she was based, to the US district court in West Palm Beach, she got stuck in traffic on the highway and realized she would not make it to the courthouse before it closed for the weekend. Halligan did a U-turn and drove back to Ft Lauderdale, where the case got assigned to the Trump-appointed US district judge Aileen Cannon.Halligan attended the subsequent court hearing on the special master request as the third-chair lawyer, one of the only times she was at counsel’s table in a federal courtroom.Within months, Halligan was in Trump’s political orbit.When Trump hosted a watch party for the 2022 midterms at Mar-a-Lago, Halligan sat at Trump’s table with Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s longtime confidant and personal lawyer; Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy; and Sergio Gor, director of the White House presidential personnel office. More

    • 200 Shares137 Views

      in US Politics

      US attorney tasked with inquiring into Trump critics resigns after president says ‘I want him out’

      by

      The federal prosecutor for the eastern district of Virginia resigned Friday under intense pressure from Donald Trump, after his office determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, a political rival of the president, with a crime.Erik Siebert told colleagues he was resigning in a letter sent Friday, NBC News reported. Meanwhile, in an early Saturday post on his Truth Social platform, Trump maintained that Siebert didn’t quit – but rather: “I fired him!”Hours earlier, Trump bluntly told reporters in the Oval Office: “I want him out.” The president claimed he soured on Siebert because Virginia’s two Democratic senators had endorsed his nomination, but also claimed that James “is very guilty of something”. ABC News reported earlier on Friday that Trump decided to fire Siebert after he failed to obtain an indictment against James.In 2024, James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump and his company that resulted in a significant financial penalty. That penalty was thrown out in August by an appeals court that upheld a judge’s finding that Trump had engaged in fraud by exaggerating his wealth for decades.After a five-month investigation, officials did not find enough clear evidence to charge James with a crime, ABC News reported earlier this week. Trump nominated Siebert, who worked since 2010 as an assistant US attorney in that office, for the position in May.The investigation centered on the allegation that James falsely said she was going to use a home she purchased in Virginia as her primary residence. While one document indicated James intended to use the home as her primary residence, others in the transaction show James clearly indicating she intended to use it as a second home.Ed Martin, a former January 6 defendant lawyer who is leading the justice department effort to target Trump’s political rivals, pressured prosecutors to seek an indictment, according to ABC News. Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a staunch Trump ally, who criminally referred James, had urged Trump to fire Siebert, according to ABC.Pulte also referred California senator Adam Schiff, another political rival of Trump, and the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook for mortgage fraud. The allegations in both of those cases appear similarly thin.The justice department has long held a level of independence from the White House, an arms length seen as necessary to give Americans confidence its prosecutors and other attorneys are making enforcement decisions based on facts and not politics. Trump has upended that norm, firing career attorneys and FBI agents who worked on January 6 cases.Those fired include Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a career prosecutor who worked on some of the highest-profile cases in the southern district of New York. Maurene Comey, who was not given a reason for her firing, sued the Trump administration this week. More

    • 138 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘Pattern of lawfare’: Trump is targeting opponents with mortgage fraud claims

      by

      Donald Trump and his allies have been accused of executing a “pattern of lawfare” akin to those exerted by authoritarian regimes in Hungary and Russia after adopting a new strategy to target political opponents: allegations of mortgage fraud.First it was Letitia James, the New York attorney general, then it was Adam Schiff, a California senator. Now, the president is targeting Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, demanding she resign and threatening to fire her.Cook, the first Black woman to be appointed a Fed governor, was appointed in 2022 by Joe Biden. Her 14-year term is not due to expire until 2038.Leading this new strategy is Bill Pulte, heir to a home construction company fortune, appointed by Trump to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees regulations of federal housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.Pulte has used his role to publicly accuse Trump’s opponents, publishing extraordinary allegations on social media and referring them for investigation.He alleges that James, Schiff and Cook committed what is known as owner-occupancy fraud, when a person claims a second home or investment property is actually a primary residence to get better mortgages. Lenders are more inclined to give borrowers a lower mortgage on a primary residence, compared with a second home or investment property.In a letter to the Department of Justice, Pulte claimed that Cook “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms”. In other online posts and on TV news appearances, Pulte said that Cook should resign or be fired over the allegations, which have not been verified.James and Schiff have denied the allegations. Cook has pledged to “provide the facts” after gathering the relevant information.Trump allies have celebrated the accusations, citing it as evidence of corruption within the Democratic party. “This is not just hypocrisy, this is poetic justice,” said Fox conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, of Schiff’s fraud accusations, in a clip Trump reposted to social media.While Pulte has targeted two prominent Democrats and a Democratic appointee, accusations of such fraud are not exclusive to the party: an investigation by the Associated Press found Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, and his then wife claimed that three homes were their primary residences.View image in fullscreenThough Paxton has not commented on his own mortgage fraud accusations, he had said of the accusations against attorney general James: “I hope that if she’s done something wrong, I hope that she’s held accountable.”Owner-occupancy fraud is not uncommon. Philadelphia Fed researchers in 2023 estimated that over 20,000 loans were given to “fraudulent investors”, or people who purchased more than one home they listed as a primary residence within a year.Some political experts have raised concerns that the president and his allies are blatantly using the legal system to intimidate political opponents. “The fact that the law is being selectively applied underlines that this is part of a pattern of lawfare,” Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, told the Guardian via email.“What we are seeing is the type of weaponization we associate with authoritarian regimes, like Hungary, Turkey or Russia,” Moynihan added. “I would say that this is a massive warning sign, but the reality is that we have seen so many of these signs at this point.”Contacted for comment, a US federal housing spokesperson said: “We refer people of all political parties for mortgage fraud, and we will continue to do so.”A White House official said: “Anyone who engages in criminal activity should be held accountable. No one is above the law.”‘No intention of being bullied’That Trump is targeting a Fed governor speaks to the president’s continued antagonism against the Federal Reserve. Compared with James or Schiff, both of whom have headed investigations against Trump, Cook has not singled herself out as an enemy to the president.But her role on the 12-person Fed governing board that sets interest rates has probably made her a target. Since taking office in January, Trump has demanded the central bank cut rates, disregarding the precedent set by his predecessors; the Fed has historically been treated as an independent institution, free from political influence, by past presidents.The Fed board hasn’t yet lowered rates during any of the five meetings it had this year, which has infuriated Trump. Policymakers, including the central bank’s chair, Jerome Powell, say the administration’s tariffs have clouded the economic outlook and raises the risk of higher inflation.Pulte has pushed himself into the heart of the action, criticizing the Fed on social media and reportedly even drafting a letter for Trump – which remains unsent – to fire Powell. “Jerome Powell’s career is done,” Pulte wrote in July.View image in fullscreen“Could somebody please inform Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell that he is hurting the housing industry very badly? People can’t get a mortgage because of him,” Trump wrote on social media earlier this week.Trump’s gut-reaction to seize control of the Fed is to fire Powell, but neither the stock market nor the US supreme court have responded kindly to such threats. So, Trump, with Pulte’s help, has spent the summer following other tactics.In July, Trump zeroed in on renovations that were taking place at the Fed’s headquarters in Washington DC, claiming that the renovations were fraudulent because they were more expensive than what was originally budgeted, costing $2.5bn instead of $1.9bn. The Fed put this down to complications that came up during renovations.But as criticisms of the renovations died down, Trump started zeroing in on Cook. Her exit would allow Trump to appoint a replacement who may be more sympathetic to his desire for lower rates.In a statement, Cook said that she has “no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet”, adding: “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”On Friday, Trump threatened to fire her if she did not resign. More

    • 125 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      Federal prosecutors open criminal investigation into New York attorney general

      by

      Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, after the Trump administration alleged last month in a referral that she may have falsified paperwork for properties she owns in Virginia and New York, according to people familiar with the matter.The investigation marks a swift and notable escalation against James, a major political enemy of Donald Trump, who was ordered to pay more than $450m in penalties as a result of a lawsuit brought by James’s office that accused him of inflating his net worth to secure financial benefits.In what appears to be the early stages of the FBI criminal investigation, prosecutors have impaneled a federal grand jury to hear evidence in the eastern district of Virginia after the head of the federal housing agency, William Pulte, last month made the referral to the justice department, the people said.The investigation appears to be multipronged, the people said, with involvement from the FBI in New York in addition to Virginia. The investigation appears to have gathered pace only in recent weeks with news of the grand jury filtering through Trump’s orbit in the last few days of April.The criminal referral rehashed claims touted online by Trump allies that James may have committed fraud by attesting in paperwork in 2023 that she would make a house in Norfolk, Virginia, which she was helping a relative to buy, as her principal residence while she was New York’s attorney general.Whether the allegations are substantial enough to result in criminal charges remains unclear. But its existence, which has not been previously reported, regardless raises the legal stakes for James in what appears to be the first criminal inquiry into one of Trump’s foremost political adversaries.James has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated retribution. In a letter to the justice department last month, James’s lawyer argued the residency claim was a mistake and that she had told the mortgage broker the house would not be her main residence.“Director Pulte cherry-picked an August 17, 2023 power of attorney that mistakenly stated the property to be Ms James’ principal residence,” James’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, wrote. “The broker understood this, and that Ms James was not a Virginia resident.”Spokespeople for the justice department and the federal housing finance agency declined to comment.In a statement, Lowell criticized the investigations as baseless, adding: “This appears to be the political retribution President Trump threatened to exact that AG Bondi assured the Senate would not occur on her watch. If prosecutors are genuinely interested in the truth, we are prepared to meet false claims with facts.”Still, the allegations have gained traction in recent weeks among Trump’s allies, who appear to see an opportunity to try to invalidate Trump’s $450m civil fraud trial verdict by challenging James’s eligibility to be the attorney general, and to advance the possibility of criminal charges.The power of attorney was signed by James in August 2023, weeks before the start of the civil fraud trial. New York state law requires public officeholders to be a resident of the state and Trump’s allies have argued when the case went to trial in October 2024, James should have been ineligible to be the attorney general.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump’s allies have also accused James of possibly obtaining improper financial benefits by attesting she would live in the Virginia house, therefore unlocking a lower interest rate for the mortgage because rates are lower for houses occupied by their owners.Real estate lawyers in Virginia suggested the paperwork was not likely to be an issue unless James had misrepresented her intentions with the house to a lender or insurer. James said in a separate loan application that she did not intend to live in Virginia.The criminal referral also accused James of buying a house in Brooklyn in 2001 that she characterized as a five-unit property with a loan that was only available for homes with four units, in order to receive better interest rates.The referral referenced a January 2001 certificate of occupancy that said the house had five units. In the letter back to the justice department, Lowell said the house had four floors, had been used by James as four units, and numerous other New York City records listed the building as four units. More

    • 138 Shares109 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump revokes security clearances for Biden, Harris and other political enemies

      by

      Donald Trump moved to revoke security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and a string of other top Democrats and political enemies in a presidential memo issued late on Friday.The security-clearance revocations also cover the former secretary of state Antony Blinken, the former Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, the former Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who prosecuted Trump for fraud, as well as Biden’s entire family. They all will no longer have access to classified information – a courtesy typically offered to former presidents and some officials after they have left public service.“I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information,” Trump wrote. He said he would also “direct all executive department and agency heads to revoke unescorted access to secure United States government facilities from these individuals”.Earlier this month, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, announced that she had revoked the clearances and blocked several of the people named in Trump’s memo, along with “the 51 signers of the Hunter Biden disinformation letter” – referring to former intelligence agency officials who asserted that the notorious Hunter Biden laptop, which was discovered before the 2020 election, was likely a Russian disinformation campaign.Trump’s decision to remove Biden from intelligence briefings is a counterstrike against his Democrat political opponent, who had banned Trump from accessing classified documents in 2021, saying the then ex-president could not be trusted because of his “erratic behavior”.Earlier this week, Trump announced he was pulling Secret Service protections for Biden’s children, Hunter and Ashley, “effective immediately”, after it was claimed that 18 agents had been assigned to the former president’s son for a trip to South Africa and 13 to daughter Ashley.More broadly, the security-clearance revocations issued on Friday appear to correlate with a cherrypicked list of the president’s political enemies, including the New York attorney general, Letitia James, and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, both of whom prosecuted Trump during the Biden era.Others on the list include Fiona Hill, a foreign policy expert who testified against Trump during his first impeachment about her boss’s alleged scheme to withhold military aid to Ukraine as a way of pressuring its president to investigate the Bidens; Alexander Vindman, a lieutenant colonel who also testified at the hearings; and Norman Eisen, a lawyer who oversaw that impeachment.Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, Republicans who served on the committee investigating the January 6 US Capitol riots, were also added to the list. Trump said the information ban “includes, but is not limited to, receipt of classified briefings, such as the President’s daily brief, and access to classified information held by any member of the intelligence community”.The move comes as NBC News reported that former president Biden and and his wife, Jill Biden, had volunteered to help fundraise for and help to rebuild the Democratic party after the stinging defeat of Biden’s nominated successor, Kamala Harris, in November.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAccording to the network, Biden made the proffer last month when he met the new Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, but the offer had not been embraced.An NBC News poll published last weekend found the Democratic party’s popularity has dropped to a record low – only 27% of registered voters said they held positive views of the party. On Friday, Trump was asked about the prospect of Biden re-entering the political arena. “I hope so,” he responded. More