Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, stated on Fox News Tuesday evening that the allegations of mortgage fraud against New York Attorney General Letitia James are “quite damning.” The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced on Thursday that they have referred James to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for suspected mortgage fraud. On “The Ingraham Angle,” host Laura Ingraham discussed James’ legal actions against President Donald Trump’s New York business, emphasizing how she employed “novel applications of law to pursue him.”
“This has been prosecuted in the past. Now, we have not heard her side of this, but these documents themselves are quite damning,” Turley said. “It’s hard to see how the residences listed were her principal residence.” In a letter sent to the DOJ, FHFA Director William Pulte alleged that James potentially falsified “residence status for a Norfolk, Va.-based home in order to secure a lower mortgage rate,” as well as “misrepresenting property descriptions to meet stringent requirements for government-backed loans and government assistance.”
Turley compared James’ case against Trump to this situation. “Now, I’ll note that one of the things that Letitia James stressed in her case against Trump is that Trump had to review documents that were filed in his name,” Turley said. “So she dismissed the argument that this was something that Trump’s people put together. She said, ‘He’s ultimately responsible.’ So they alleged that she gave a power of attorney in a couple of these instances. But according to her own standard, that’s not enough.”
In September 2022, Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, alleging he inflated the value of his New York real estate assets to secure loans. In February 2024, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay more than $450 million in damages, a decision Trump and his legal team appealed. Although the judges who heard Trump’s appeal in September 2024 seemed open to overturning the decision, his attorney later asked for the case to be dismissed following Trump’s victory in the November 2024 election. However, in December 2024, James refused, stating her office “will not stipulate to vacate the final judgment.”