The FAFO DOJ Comes for NY AG Letitia James
You may not like that Donald Trump’s Justice Department is coming down on his legal and political opponents, but Democrats are the ones who opened Pandora’s Box.
“No one is above the law,” a self-righteous Letitia James and every other Democrat on the planet declared last year as they doggedly pursued Donald Trump via lawfare with all the blind obsession of Captain Ahab chasing Moby Dick.
Well, turnabout is fair play, right? Right?
Allegations first came to light in April, but yesterday, New York’s attorney general was indicted on charges of bank fraud and false statements to a financial institution. And if any Democrats have a problem with that, they should acquaint themselves with 18 U.S.C. Section 1344 and 18 U.S.C. Section 1014, respectively.
James allegedly misrepresented the use of her Virginia home to save money via a lower interest rate. According to CBS News, “The indictment says James purchased the home for $137,000 and borrowed $109,600 — and by getting more favorable lending terms and a larger seller credit, she allegedly saved herself $18,933 over the life of the loan.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia, where the charges were filed, “If convicted, Letitia James faces penalties including up to 30 years in prison per count, up to a $1 million fine on each count, and forfeiture.”
“No one is above the law,” said U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, employing the phrase that’s coming back to haunt the Lawfare Left. “The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust. The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
A few hours before those charges came down, I wrote about Democrat hysterics over how Trump is supposedly weaponizing the Justice Department in an unprecedented way. As usual, “unprecedented” means something they’ve already been doing for years.
Democrats opened Pandora’s Box.
They impeached Trump twice over grossly exaggerated charges of supposed wrongdoing. The first time, it was for what Joe Biden actually did. The second time, it was by so thoroughly redefining the word “insurrection” as to render it farcical.
After Democrats used COVID to rig the 2020 election, they indicted Trump on criminal charges — not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times with a grand total of 88 charges. In Georgia, it was for supposedly trying to overturn the election via an ill-advised but terribly misinterpreted call with the state secretary of state. In New York, it was over how he recorded alleged hush-money payments to a former alleged mistress. (That’s the only case that led to a conviction on all 34 “felony” counts.) At the federal level, the DOJ outsourced its persecution to Special Counsel Jack Smith, who pursued two cases — one about classified documents, and the other about conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.
On top of that, Letitia James filed a civil case against Trump over real estate valuation. That case initially hit Trump with a cruel-and-unusual $454 million bond for a victimless “crime.” That bond was eventually tossed, but James is appealing.
Predictably, James lacked any self-awareness about her hypocrisy, saying in a video response to the indictment, “This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State attorney general.”
Other Democrats are lining up to parrot the same line.
For an objective look at history, let’s turn to … The New York Times:
When Letitia James ran for New York attorney general in 2018, one of her promises was to sue Donald Trump. She called him an “illegitimate president.” She suggested that he could be criminally charged with obstruction of justice.
She said that her decision to seek office was largely “about that man in the White House who can’t go a day without threatening our fundamental rights.”
So, she found the “criminal” first and the charges later. And now she complains about weaponizing law enforcement?
Charges are not a conviction. Barring a plea deal, James will still face trial, and she may be acquitted. In fact, that may be the likeliest outcome.
There’s also the not-small matter that this is arguably a small matter. James does not stand accused of defaulting on the loan, and the grand total she would have saved over the life of the loan isn’t even enough to buy the cheapest new car on the market. Is it really consequential that she got a better deal on a house?
If she is the chief law enforcement officer of New York, yes. Especially after she once lectured on social media, “When powerful people cheat to get better loans, it comes at the expense of hardworking people.” Especially after she was elected on a promise to get Trump and then prosecuted him for virtually the same supposed crime.
Still, maybe the law doesn’t make much sense. In this case and countless others, it’s not that people are necessarily doing bad things or victimizing anyone; it’s that the law is kind of dumb. My guess is also that many, many people with multiple homes do this same thing rather than pay higher interest rates for … reasons.
In James’s aforementioned prior post, she asserted, “Everyday Americans cannot lie to a bank to get a mortgage, and if they did, our government would throw the book at them.”
In a way, maybe that’s Trump’s point. He and virtually all of his supporters are tired of the two-tiered justice system that allows powerful Democrats to get away with all sorts of things that no Republican or regular American can.
