The U.S. Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James over a real estate transaction in Virginia, according to a person familiar with the matter. A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia is now reviewing the purchase of a single-family home in Norfolk — a move that marks the first known criminal probe targeting a high-profile prosecutor who has repeatedly taken legal action against former President Donald Trump.
Documents obtained by The Washington Post show James signed a mortgage application indicating that the Norfolk home would serve as her primary residence. Her signature also appears on a power of attorney granted to her niece, Shamice Thompson-Hairston, who completed the home purchase.
The inquiry stems from a criminal referral submitted last month by William J. Pulte, a Trump appointee who currently heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In a formal letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Pulte alleged that James falsified bank and property records in order to secure federally backed loans on favorable terms by misrepresenting her intent to occupy the property.
The central allegation concerns a 2023 mortgage form in which James reportedly stated she intended to live in Norfolk, despite holding office in New York at the time. Pulte further claimed James misrepresented the number of residential units in a Brooklyn brownstone she has owned since 2001.
James’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, dismissed the accusations as clerical errors. In a letter to Bondi, Lowell called the probe “the exact form of political retaliation President Trump publicly vowed to pursue,” and added: “If prosecutors are genuinely interested in the truth, we are fully prepared to counter falsehoods with facts.”
Lowell argued that Pulte selectively cited one document while ignoring numerous others in which James repeatedly made it clear she would not be residing in the Norfolk property. “Two weeks before the power of attorney was signed,” Lowell wrote, “Ms. James explicitly informed the mortgage broker in all caps: ‘THIS PROPERTY WILL NOT BE MY PRIMARY RESIDENCE. It will be Shamice’s primary residence.’”
Allies of the former president have also accused James of improperly accessing benefits intended for first-time homebuyers. Regarding the Brooklyn property, Lowell noted that a 2001 certificate of occupancy listed five units, but that more recent and authoritative records — including those held by the New York City Department of Finance — correctly list four.
James, meanwhile, remained defiant. Speaking Thursday evening at an event in New York State alongside several fellow state attorneys general, she said: “We’ve been successful in blocking some of this administration’s most harmful initiatives — and that’s why they’re coming after me. Either we fight for our democracy, or we lose it.”
In February, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his company to pay more than $450 million in penalties and interest, ruling that Trump and top executives had committed fraud by inflating the value of assets to secure loans and insurance deals. The civil case was brought by James’s office and marked one of the most consequential legal defeats for the former president.
Trump, who has long claimed political bias in legal proceedings against him, has insisted that James pursued the case as part of a broader attempt to influence the 2024 presidential race.
Their feud goes back years. During her 2018 campaign for attorney general, James openly pledged to investigate Trump — a vow that has fueled accusations from the former president and his allies that she was always motivated by politics.
