New York Attorney General Tish James pleaded not guilty in a fraud case brought by one of President Trump’s handpicked Justice Department officials at a hearing in Virginia on Friday.
James entered a plea of not guilty to counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution before Magistrate Judge Douglas Miller in the federal court in Norfolk, Va., a spokesman for her office confirmed to the Daily News.
She was expected to address the media shortly after the proceedings. Miller set a tentative trial date for Jan. 26.
The charges against James, which the AG says stem from pure political retribution, allege she rented a Norfolk property she purchased in 2020 to a family after claiming in mortgage papers she’d use it as a secondary residence. The case alleges the AG could have netted $18,933 in ill-gotten gains over the life of the mortgage loan.
Lindsey Halligan, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and one of Trump’s former personal lawyers, pursued the case against New York’s top law enforcement official shortly after Trump appointed her to the top job in September. She has no prosecutorial experience.
Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Siebert, quit after facing a pressure campaign to prosecute James and another longtime Trump target, former FBI Director James Comey, on charges Siebert believed were unsupported. Comey was indicted in September for allegedly lying to Congress, a case pursued by Halligan as well.
The president has disparaged both officials endlessly and made no secret of his desire to use the federal government’s enforcement powers against his political enemies.
This developing story will be updated.
Originally Published:
