This could be awkward.
The New York State Attorney General is bouncing from one hot seat to the next, and darn if that isn't an unpleasant mental picture.
But she brought it all on herself.
Already under fire for her creative accounting tricks and faulty memories while juggling paperwork for out-of-state properties while looking as if she was trying to avoid more city interference and fees on her Brooklyn residence - and who hasn't mistakenly said they married a parent on official documents?
🚨BREAKING: Letitia James is facing 30 years in federal prison and a 1 million dollar fine. She lied on loan applications to get better interest rates, and even listed her father as her husband on one of them. pic.twitter.com/Ppx41M2Icn
— kekius tees (@kekmaximusk) May 11, 2025
Leititia James can't seem to get her name out of the headlines for the worst stories.
Back at the beginning of the month, as inquiries into James' various dealing began really heating up, the New York State Assembly was trying to get their budget passed in Albany at the same time.
They finally did, and it all would have gone by with the usual grumbling, except for a last-minute add-on that funded Letitia James' personal legal defense bills in these burgeoning scandals.
...Both houses of the state legislature passed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s massive $254 billion state budget package Thursday night following days of debate and over a month delay past the April 1 deadline.
Lawmakers made the final votes on the spending plan Thursday evening after fierce debate over a provision slipped into the budget — first revealed by The Post — that could leave state taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars of legal fees for Attorney General Letitia James.
The revelation came a day before sources confirmed the FBI has opened an investigation into an allegation that the attorney general committed mortgage fraud by misrepresenting her primary residency on paperwork.
“I can’t imagine a majority of New Yorkers not being outraged that their hard-earned dollars that go to the government are now being used or can be used to pay for private attorneys to defend public officials against charges of crimes that they committed having nothing to do with their elected position,” Lanza said.
However, Deputy State Senate Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) argued that the law is needed “because we are currently in an environment politically where the legal system, the prosecutorial system, investigative bodies of government are being used to target political enemies.”
People were kind of upset about it when they heard, as the current messiness has nothing to do with the performance of her official duties, no matter how much she insists they're politically motivated, aka Trump payback. NY Senate Republicans were working on finding a way to turn the $10M 'slush fund' tap off.
Irate state Republicans want to bottle up a sneaky $10 million “slush fund” that could be used to pay Attorney General Letitia James’ legal bills as she faces a criminal probe.
Not a penny should be spent from the controversial fund that Democrats slipped into New York’s 2026 budget, state Senate Republicans urged Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in a letter obtained by The Post.
Certain New York officials can tap into the fund to pay for legal expenses, even as part of probes not related to their state employment – a provision widely seen as giving James a path to pay for her legal defense during US Justice Department probes into her alleged fraudulent real estate dealings.
In the meantime, NY Senate Dems are covering for her, though, and, oddly enough, so is the media.
Politico named her the US Attorney General in their 'shadow cabinet' exercise the other day. As Sam Antar, the fellow who broke the mortgage story, points out, Politico's author left out a few gems in James' resume.
🔥 Politico just named Letitia James their “Shadow Attorney General.” And Bill Scher—who wrote the piece—didn’t mention a single word about her federal criminal investigation for mortgage fraud.
— Sam E. Antar (@SamAntar) May 29, 2025
That’s not journalism. That’s reputational laundering.
FULL ARTICLE (10 M READ):… pic.twitter.com/mVN9cg3XH8
...Let’s break down what Bill Scher deliberately left out :
James lied—under oath—on a federally backed mortgage application.
On Aug 2, 2023, she wrote: “This property WILL NOT be my primary residence" for her Sterling St, VA property.
On Aug 17, she signed a sworn declaration stating the opposite.
That false statement got her over $100,000 in benefits: lower interest, reduced down payment, waived reserve requirements.
The mortgage required BOTH borrowers to live there. She never moved. Two top AG staffers witnessed the lie. Meanwhile, her Brooklyn property has 5 legal units—but James claimed only 4 on loans, permits, and a federal loan mod. For 20 years.
That’s textbook mortgage fraud. That’s a federal felony.
And Politico’s Bill Scher? He ignored it all. Not one mention of the April 14, 2025 DOJ referral. Not one citation of the mortgage documents. Just fluff and fiction. Why?
Because James sued Trump. That’s her media shield...
Her shield seems to be cracking among colleagues in professional settings, though, as the Free Beacon is just reporting.
President Donald Trump and his allies aren’t alone in accusing New York attorney general Letitia James of abusing her prosecutorial powers. A former high-ranking official in her office is now on the record saying the same.
Former assistant New York solicitor general Brian Ginsberg, who reported to James from 2019 through 2022, warned the Supreme Court in a May 12 filing that James is abusing her prosecutorial powers in an ongoing Title IX case against a western New York school district over four disparate sexual misconduct allegations between its students. Ginsberg minced no words about his former boss, urging the Supreme Court in his writ of certiorari to take up the case to "disabuse opportunistic attorneys general" like James from the notion they can misuse their parens patriae powers—the doctrine she used to justify her involvement in the case which enables the government in limited instances to prosecute lawsuits on behalf of individual citizens.
Ginsberg reminded the Supreme Court that James has a history of allegedly abusing her powers, citing comments from a justice of the New York supreme court in November 2024 reprimanding James for bringing forward a politically charged environmental case against Pepsi, which the court tossed.
"The same New York State Attorney General who initiated this action against the School District has been judicially chastised for abusing her power to initiate representative actions to launch 'predatory lawsuits that seek to impose punishment while searching for a crime,'" Ginsberg wrote in his Supreme Court filing, citing comments from New York supreme court justice Emilio Colaiacovo in the Pepsi case.
He frames James as just a big, abusive bully who's been giving black eyes to friends and foes for quite a while.
This is yet another one of those long obvious but verboten facts which 'can now be spoken' of by a collusive press corps which did its level best to ignore and deny the truth.
"I think it is problematic when people run for prosecutor and promise to go after a specific politician ... And I think that there was a degree to which that was tolerated by the media writ large."
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) May 29, 2025
Jake Tapper admits that Letitia James and Alvin Bragg were conducting "lawfare"… pic.twitter.com/1I9Gtrt0vO
I KIND OF THINK ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR WAS SORT OF TOLERATED BY THE PRESS ~ Jake the Snek
This James woman sure is lousy at taking punches herself, even when they're legitimate questions about truly questionable activities.
People are bringing the receipts, too, every chance they get.
🧵BREAKING: Letitia James isn’t just under DOJ investigation for mortgage fraud. Her own former top lawyer—Brian Ginsberg—just told the Supreme Court she abuses her prosecutorial power for political gain.
— Sam E. Antar (@SamAntar) May 29, 2025
And that’s only the beginning.
1/ Ginsberg, former Assistant Solicitor… https://t.co/hISnirSF1z
...1/ Ginsberg, former Assistant Solicitor General under James, accused her of launching “predatory lawsuits” that impose punishment while searching for a crime. He urged SCOTUS to rein in “opportunistic” attorneys general like her. This is her own senior staffer.
2/ Ginsberg’s warning aligns with a mountain of evidence: — In 2023, James declared a Virginia house her “principal residence” to get a federally backed mortgage—while still serving as NY AG.
3/ For 20+ years, she misrepresented her Brooklyn brownstone as a “1-family” or “4-family” in mortgage filings—even though official records show it’s a 5-unit building. That let her qualify for easier, cheaper loans she wasn’t entitled to.
4/ The Federal Housing Finance Agency formally referred her to DOJ for mortgage fraud and perjury. They say she falsified bank documents and property records to get favorable loan terms—both in Brooklyn and Virginia.
5/ And at least two women have accused her longtime aide, Ibrahim Khan, of sexual misconduct. Instead of protecting them, James allegedly tried to silence the victims.
6/ This is the same Attorney General who said, 'Everyday Americans cannot lie to a bank to get a mortgage.” Letitia James allegedly did exactly that—twice.
7/ So now we have: A Supreme Court brief from her former top deputy A DOJ criminal referral Mortgage fraud across multiple properties Tenant complaints Sexual misconduct allegations inside her office And still no accountability.
8/ Letitia James weaponized her office. Now her own team is calling her out, her filings are under federal scrutiny, and her public image is collapsing.
9/ This isn’t partisan. It’s prosecutable.
And, dang - it's not pretty.
But it sure is about time someone did.
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