Federal prosecutors are in the early stages of an investigation into the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud case against President Donald Trump, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The probe is focused on whether James’ office used its authority to violate Trump’s legal rights through its civil lawsuits against the president and his businesses, these people said. The investigation is also looking at whether the National Rifle Association’s rights were violated by her civil suits, they said. It is being run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, two of the sources said.
In response to an NBC News inquiry, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said: “Any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American. We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not return a request for comment.
James, a Democrat, successfully sued Trump and his company over what her office said were fraudulent misrepresentations of his wealth and financial statements. A judge awarded James’ office over $300 million in a disgorgement penalty, but the case is on appeal.
James’ office also sued the NRA and its leadership with mixed results. The attorney general had sought the dissolution of the NRA in what is commonly referred to as the corporate “death penalty,” but a judge struck down those claims.
In 2024, James’ office did win its civil fraud case against the longtime head of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, with a jury convicting him of diverting millions of dollars from the gun group for his own personal lifestyle.
It is not immediately clear how far along the DOJ investigation into James’ office is and what evidence, if any, the Justice Department has gathered in the probe.
An attorney for James, Abbe Lowell, said the probe of James’ fraud case against Trump and his businesses “has to be the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign.”
“Weaponizing the Department of Justice to try to punish an elected official for doing her job is an attack on the rule of law and a dangerous escalation by this administration,” he added.
The investigation is at least the second by the Trump administration involving James. Earlier this year, Justice Department and FBI officials opened a federal criminal investigation into allegations that James made false claims in mortgage applications.
Lowell described those documents as mistakes in an April letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, and said there were contemporaneous letters and forms that James filed that had the correct information.
The letter called the “threadbare allegations” the “next salvo in President Trump’s revenge tour against Attorney General James.”
In addition to her fraud case against Trump and his companies, James and her office have launched a number of successful legal challenges to his administration’s agenda, dating back to his first term in office.
Trump has maintained that James is biased against him. In 2021, he sued to stop her from proceeding with her fraud investigation, saying, “Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent.” The lawsuit also alleged that Trump was the victim of “viewpoint discrimination.”
Trump later dropped the suit, but has continued to criticize James, including in an April Truth Social post that called her a “wacky” and “totally corrupt politician” who should immediately resign.
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