Former GOP AG applauds ‘by the book’ approach in James fraud charges

Former Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron applauded the prosecutor who handled the indictment of Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, saying she is prosecuting the case “by the book” in a state that did not vote for a Republican presidential candidate. presidential election for two decades.

“Lindsey Halligan is serious,” Cameron, CEO of the nonprofit 1792 Exchange, told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview Tuesday. “And she has been charged with ensuring that no one is above the law in the Eastern District of Virginia. And she is certainly answering that call and that commitment and that responsibility, which I applaud.”

A Virginia grand jury indicted James on Oct. 9, months after Federal Housing Finance Director Bill Pulte wrote in a criminal referral to the Justice Department in April that James allegedly falsified mortgage records to obtain cheaper loans.

Lindsey Halligan, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is the lead federal prosecutor overseeing the case, following her appointment to the position by President Donald Trump in September. Halligan previously served as special assistant to the president and senior associate secretary for White House staff during the first months of the administration before transitioning to her new role.

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Former Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron applauded the prosecutor who handled the indictment of Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Halligan also landed on the political map while serving as one of Trump’s lawyers after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago in 2022 looking for classified documents kept at Trump’s residence.

The Trump-appointed federal prosecutor, who was also appointed to the position on an acting basis, has since obtained separate indictments against James and former FBI Director James Comey, both of whom are longtime political enemies of Trump.

Cameron applauded Halligan’s handling of the cases “to the letter,” noting how grand juries made up of Virginia residents determined there was enough evidence to indict both men in both cases.

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“Whether it was this case or the Comey case, she took them to the grand jury,” he said. “And I remind people that the grand jury process is a deliberative process. It seems to be within the community that sits on that grand jury that the ultimate responsibility is to decide whether there is probable cause to move forward with an indictment. And that happened in both of these cases.”

Lindsey Halligan, then special assistant to the president, speaks with a reporter outside the White House, August 20, 2025, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)

Cameron, who is also running for Kentucky Senate in the 2026 cycle, noted that Virginia is by no means a conservative-leaning state, with many of its residents working as employees in Washington, DC. Virginia already voted for a Republican presidential candidate 20 years ago in the 2004 race, and is in the midst of a high-stakes gubernatorial election.

“Virginia is not a hotbed of conservatism,” he said. “It’s a jury or grand jury of peers that ultimately formulates that indictment. And when you look at the facts alleged, it seems pretty straightforward in the context of General James and what was misrepresented on the loan documents and whether it was a primary residence or a rental property.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on October 9, 2025, by a Virginia grand jury. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

“I applaud Lindsey Halligan for taking that literally and, you know, presenting the case to the grand jury that ultimately gave them the information necessary to make a judgment on the indictment,” he continued.

Cameron is the CEO of 1792 Exchange, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to businesses, other nonprofits, and philanthropic groups to protect against “woke” corporations.

It also educates “Congress and stakeholder organizations about the dangers of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) policies, and helps return public companies in the United States to neutrality on ideological issues so that they can better serve their shareholders and customers with excellence and integrity,” according to the group’s website.

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Cameron served as Kentucky’s Republican attorney general from 2020 to 2024, which provided him with unique insight into the James case as state attorney general.

James was investigated over a Norfolk, Virginia, home she purchased in 2020, which she identified on mortgage documents and a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac form as a property that would serve as her primary residence. Federal officials say the home was listed as such in order to obtain cheaper loans, while pointing to state law that requires New York’s attorney general to reside in the Empire State.

Prosecutors in the case said James’ “ill-gotten gains” from the mortgage documents amount to “approximately $18,933 over the life of the loan.”

President Donald Trump attends a meeting of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at United Nations Headquarters September 23, 2025, in New York. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

James has denied any wrongdoing, saying the errors were not intended to deceive a lender, but were mistakes. She, along with her Democratic allies, instead claimed the indictment was an example of how Trump is “weaponizing” the Justice Department against his political enemies.

“I will not bow. I will not break. I will not bend,” James said earlier in October during a campaign stop for New York socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. “You come for me, you have to come through all of us. Every single one of us. We’re all in this together.”

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“I know what it feels like to be attacked simply for doing his job,” James said, while chastising those who “use justice as a weapon for political ends.”

Cameron noted that James’ office has prosecuted similar cases at the state level, which he said reveals the “hypocrisy” of claims that this case constitutes a political weapon by the Trump administration. James’ office has previously prosecuted mortgage fraud cases related to money laundering, deed theft cases and mortgage fraud schemes, according to a review of previous press releases from James’ office.

President Trump nominated attorney Lindsey Halligan to serve as acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in September. (Marco Bello/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is not militarization,” he said. “It’s about no one being above the law. And again, whether it’s the Department of Justice or individual U.S. attorneys across this country, there is a responsibility to follow the law wherever it leads. And I appreciate the work that has been done on that front.”

James, herself, also personally denounced “powerful people” who are “cheating to get better loans” in 2024, reacting to the civil fraud verdict against Trump that year.

“When powerful people cheat to get better loans, it comes at the expense of hard-working people. Ordinary Americans can’t lie to a bank to get a mortgage, and if they did, our government would throw the book at them. There simply can’t be different rules for different people,” James wrote in a February 2024 post on X as she attacked Trump on social media.

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James campaigned on aggressive legal action against Trump during his successful 2018 campaign for New York attorney general, and filed dozens of lawsuits against his first administration, including more than 70 legal and regulatory actions in 2020 alone that specifically fought the administration’s environmental laws, according to James’ office in 2021.

“I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president,” James said in a video after his 2018 primary victory.

“We here in New York — and me in particular — we are not afraid of you,” she added of Trump after his statewide victory that same year, the New York Times reported. “And as the next attorney general of his home state, I will shine a bright light on every dark corner of his real estate dealings and every transaction, demanding truthfulness at every turn.”

James introduced the 2022 civil fraud case against Trump and the Trump Organization, accusing them of lying to lenders by inflating the value of Trump properties. James won the case, but the appeals court threw out a massive $500 million judgment against Trump in August. Trump called the case a trial, alongside a host of other criminal and civil cases he has faced ahead of the 2024 election.

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) press conference at the Manhattan federal courthouse on February 14, 2025 in New York. (Michael M. Santiago)

James faces up to 60 years, 30 years per count, if convicted, as well as a $1 million fine on each count and forfeiture, according to the Justice Department’s press release on the indictment, which notes that actual federal sentences are generally less severe than maximum sentences.

Trump held a news conference with FBI Director Kash Patel and other federal law enforcement officials in the Oval Office on Wednesday, when Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche criticized any claims that the Justice Department had become a “weapon,” while discussing the multitude of cases Trump has faced in the run-up to the November 2024 general election.

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“When people talk about the militarization of this department, it’s embarrassing because there’s no way to look at what we’re doing to restore justice, to do the right thing and in every case and say that’s militarization, and yet remain eerily silent about what’s happened over the last three years,” Blanche said.