OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
3:17 PM – Thursday, October 9, 2025
New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on Thursday by a federal grand jury in Virginia on fraud charges.
The indictment includes counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a lending institution related to her claim that a Virginia property was a secondary residence, according to Reuters.
Prosecutors say that James misrepresented her primary residence status on mortgage documents for a property she purchased in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2023. They argue that she inaccurately claimed the Norfolk property as her primary residence, which affected the loan rate she received.
Prosecutors are also scrutinizing her Brooklyn brownstone and how she represented her relationship to her father on official documents.
The investigation was reportedly initiated following a referral from Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who stated that James had falsified information to secure more favorable mortgage terms.
In mortgage applications, lenders often request information about family connections for purposes such as verifying residency, co-signing, or assessing financial background. Misrepresenting these details could be considered a material falsehood under federal law — forming the basis for the “making false statements to a financial institution” portion of the indictment.
Nonetheless, James has publicly denied all allegations, describing them as “baseless” and politically motivated. Her legal team argues that any discrepancies were inadvertent and “corrected promptly,” claiming that there was no intent to defraud lenders.
The prosecution in James’ case is being handled by Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump lawyer now serving as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Each of the charges James faces carries a potential sentence of up to 30 years in prison. However, legal experts have noted that that proving intent to defraud remains a high hurdle for federal prosecutors.
UPDATE — 10/9/25 — 3:59 P.M. PT: More surfacing charges of James’ were included in the article.
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