One of President Donald Trump’s top legal foes on climate issues has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia, amid an aggressive push by the president for his Justice Department to exact retribution against those he views as his political enemies.
New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday was charged with two criminal counts of mortgage fraud in a case helmed by Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer for Trump whom he tapped to serve as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after longtime DOJ lawyers pushed back against the president’s legal crusade.
James, a Democrat, decried the indictment as part of Trump’s “desperate weaponization” of the federal justice system.
“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost,” James said in a Thursday statement. “The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties.”
