Competing factions of the Democratic Party closed ranks Friday around New York State Attorney General Letitia James, casting the federal charges against her as a sign of President Donald Trump’s authoritarian tactics.
“All aspects of our political apparatus in this state, what are they doing? They are rallying behind Tish,” said NAACP New York State Conference President L. Joy Williams, who learned of Thursday’s indictment before a speech by Gov. Kathy Hochul to the NAACP convention on Long Island.
“Folks are fired up,” Williams continued. “This is not just about political leaders and advocates. The general, individual New Yorker is pissed off.”
James, who was first elected in 2018, said the charges are baseless and politically motivated. She’s been in the Republican president’s crosshairs since her office sued him and his businesses for fraud in 2022. A judge fined Trump more than $350 million, but the penalty has been set aside and is under appeal.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia charged James with two counts related to mortgage fraud. Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who personally signed the indictment, said the charges “represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust.”
“No one is above the law,” Halligan said, borrowing a line James has often used to describe her case against Trump.
As lawyers prepare for a legal battle — a first hearing is scheduled for Oct. 24 — politicians and advocates in New York are mobilizing. The Working Families Party scheduled a rally for Friday evening.
After the indictment was unsealed, three New York City elected officials — Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams — made a rare joint appearance to denounce the indictment. Adams and Lander ran against each other in the Democratic primary for mayor.
U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said everyone should be outraged.
“This is what tyranny looks like,” he said on the U.S. Capitol steps.
And James’ indictment quickly became an issue on the New York City mayoral campaign trail.
Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani joined with James supporters Friday outside of the Manhattan courthouse where the attorney general’s office won a trial finding Trump liable for civil fraud.
“This is a blatant miscarriage of justice,” said Mamdani, a state assemblymember whom James has endorsed. “This is a shameless act of political retribution.”
Mamdani’s closest opponent in the polls had a more-muted take.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat running on an independent line, issued a statement generally denouncing partisanship in the criminal justice system.
He did not mention Trump or James by name. Her office oversaw a 2021 probe that found Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, a conclusion Cuomo has long derided as a politically motivated hit job.
“We must restore faith in fairness, facts, and due process — because once justice becomes partisan, everyone loses,” Cuomo posted on X.
Cuomo’s statement drew a retort from James’ supporters, including Mamdani. “If you cannot say Donald Trump’s name today, how will you stand up to him tomorrow?” he said.
The various factions of the Democratic Party in New York should use the James indictment as an opportunity to come together and focus their message against the Trump administration, said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University.
“We know that the president has already promised that he will penalize New York City if the mayor's race does not go the way he wants it to go,” she said. “And so I'm hopeful that Democrats will use this opportunity to really think about the larger threats ahead and how they can best provide for the citizens of New York.”
Republicans say the indictment is a matter of equal treatment.
Prosecutors said James in 2020 bought a house on Peronne Avenue in Norfolk, Virginia that she rents to a family of three. But James told a bank that she intended to use the property as a secondary residence, allowing her to get a lower mortgage rate and save around $19,000 over the life of the loan, according to court documents.
James’ civil case against Trump, meanwhile, centered on the Trump Organization inflating the value of its assets in order to obtain more favorable loan terms.
Rep. Mike Lawler, a Hudson Valley Republican, pointed to a 2024 tweet in which James discussed Trump’s civil case and said the government would “throw the book” at everyday Americans if they tried to “cheat to get better loans.”
“According to the indictment, Tish James claimed this was a second residence, as opposed to an income property,” Lawler posted on X. “If true, then it would seem based on her own tweets, she believes that is a prosecutable offense as it resulted in a more favorable loan.”
James and her lawyers haven’t specifically addressed the allegations in the indictment. Her previous comments on the pending investigation were focused on an April criminal referral from Bill Pulte, the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, that related to a separate house in Norfolk that James bought along with her niece.
The attorney general has said Pulte’s referral was the result of cherrypicked documents. James listed the house on Peronne Avenue in her state financial disclosure forms as an investment property. She reported between $1,000 and $5,000 of income in 2020, but no rental income in subsequent years.
Even if she secured a loan claiming it as a second residence, prosecutors would need to prove that James intended to defraud the bank when she did. Cardozo Law School Professor Jessica Roth, a former federal prosecutor, said that could be hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
“If at the end of the day she didn't stand to gain all that much in terms of money she saved … does that suggest she was actually engaged in an elaborate scheme to deceive anyone?” Roth said. “Or does it suggest instead perhaps that this was a mistake? If it was a mistake at all?”
Roth and U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, another federal prosecutor, said that a judge could dismiss the case due to selective prosecution, where a case was brought due to factors other than the evidence, before it reaches a jury. They both pointed to a social media post in which Trump said he installed Halligan after firing former U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert.
The president said Siebert wasn’t moving quickly enough to bring a case against James and former FBI Director James Comey. Comey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a charge of lying to Congress.
“ What this clearly is, is you pick a target and you do whatever you can to manufacture a crime. And we know that because Donald Trump said that,” Goldman, a Democrat representing parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, said. “We have crossed a red line here.”
Elizabeth Kim contributed reporting.
