Trump housing official seeks new DOJ prosecution of Letitia James

A Trump administration official filed two criminal complaints against New York Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday, months after the Justice Department failed for a third time in its effort to prosecute President Donald Trump’s longtime target.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte alleged in the referrals that James committed insurance fraud, saying she may have falsified information on separate homeowners insurance applications regarding occupancy of two homes in Norfolk, Virginia, according to documents obtained by NBC News.

One referral was made to U.S. Attorney Jason Quiñones in the Southern District of Florida and the other to U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in the Northern District of Illinois because the insurance companies for the two respective claims, each involving a different Norfolk property, are based in those jurisdictions.

“According to insurance documents posted on

He added that based on the information provided by Davis, James made false claims to the respective insurance companies.

The information released by Davis was publicly available court documents from the previous criminal case against James in the Eastern District of Virginia.

MS NOW was the first to report the criminal referrals.

In the reference to Boutros, Pulte wrote that James “made statements that the house would be occupied by a single adult, with no children. Instead, according to the message, she knew that the house was actually occupied by four people – three children and her niece.”

In the referral sent to Quiñones, Pulte said James “made false statements that his property would be unoccupied five months out of the year. According to the message, this was false. The home was in fact occupied year-round by his niece.”

James’ lawyer, Father D. Lowell, said in a statement that “Trump and his political backers continue to abuse their power to pursue a vendetta against her by attempting to rebrand, reclassify and repeat baseless allegations.”

“They are continuing this campaign of inappropriate vengeance instead of helping to lower the cost of living in this country,” Lowell said. “These desperate tactics will fail – like all previous attempts – and expose an administration that has abandoned its responsibility to the American people in favor of petty political retaliation.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.

Pulte was responsible for sending criminal referrals to the Justice Department last year against James and other prominent Trump critics, including Rep. Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, Sen. Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. All have denied any wrongdoing.

The Justice Department unsuccessfully attempted to prosecute James three times on mortgage-related charges, with the most recent attempt failing in December after a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, declined to indict him.

The week before, the Justice Department failed to obtain a new indictment against James in Norfolk. In November, a federal judge dismissed criminal charges against James, finding that the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, a Trump appointee, was illegally appointed to her position as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The October indictment alleged that James falsely claimed a home in Norfolk was his second residence in order to receive a cheaper loan and then rent the home to a family of three. This came shortly after Trump publicly called on US Attorney General Pam Bondi to target James and other perceived political enemies.

James sued Trump in September 2022, alleging that he and the Trump Organization committed more than 200 instances of fraud over 10 years. This led to a judgment against Trump and the company’s top executives, including a civil fraud penalty of $464 million. The sanction was rejected on appeal in August. Some appeals judges agreed that Trump and his companies engaged in fraud, but agreed with their colleagues that the sentence was an “excessive fine.”