The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albany, New York, have opened a criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James over allegations of mortgage fraud, the Albany Times-Union first reported Thursday.
The probe comes in the wake of a criminal referral by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte earlier this month.
In his letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Pulte wrote that James “falsified records” to secure a home loan on a property in Virginia as her “principal residence” in 2023, when she was serving as New York’s prosecutor.
Further, Pulte’s letter went on to note that in 1983, James and her father signed a mortgage stating they were “husband and wife in order to secure a home mortgage. Then, on May 4, 2000, Ms. James was listed again as husband and wife’ in documents. While this was a long time ago, it raises serious concerns about the validity of Ms. James representations on mortgage applications.”
Pulte outlined that James could be liable for criminal charges ranging from “wire fraud” to “mail fraud,” “bank fraud,” “false statements to a financial institution,” “and/or other relevant state and federal laws.”
For her part, James slammed the accusations as part of President Donald Trump’s “revenge tour.” She hired Abbe Lowell to represent her in the matter.
“The stunning hypocrisy of President Trump’s complaint that the Justice Department had been ‘politicized’ and ‘weaponized’ against him is laid bare as he and others in his administration are now asking you to undertake the very same practice,” Lowell wrote to Bondi. “This so-called ‘criminal referral,’ which recycles long-disproven allegations and is ‘(b)ased on media reports’ lacks any credible foundation.”
Trump called on James to resign after Pulte’s referral.
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