Attorney General Leticia James and the Public’s Right to Know the Truth
Guest post by Roger Stone
One of the most striking features of the media’s coverage of the investigation and federal indictment of New York’s Attorney General Leticia James for bank fraud and making false statements is the complete absence of any investigative reporting. One might reasonably expect newspapers which used to pride themselves on exposing cutting-edge stories on matters of public concern to at least show some objective interest in ascertaining all of the facts underlying the serious criminal allegations leveled against New York’s chief law enforcement officer. Surely the public has the right to know the true facts. An effective government depends on the public’s ability to believe in the integrity of its leaders. This is especially so when it comes to an Attorney General – the chief law enforcement officer who, among other duties, decides when and who to prosecute when laws appear to have been broken. No one is above the law in our country and the public’s ability to believe that that principle is carried out in practice is vitally important to a credible system of justice. The media and investigative journalists play a key role in our democracy in providing a check on the selective enforcement of the laws and evasions of accountability by digging up and reporting on facts that might otherwise not be subject to public scrutiny.
In the case of Attorney General James, instead of engaging in any serious inquiry or reporting on the underlying allegations, the media has mocked the prosecutions and ignored the evidence available in the public domain. The facts already disclosed should raise serious concerns for any objective observer interested in the integrity of our public officials. The facts revealed so far should have rocketed into action on all cylinders any serious investigative journalist, especially among the New York based media. There clearly is more to the story that the public deserves to know. If a fraction of the energy that has been devoted to attacking the prosecution and the purported motive behind it were actually devoted to ascertaining the relevant underlying facts, one suspects New York might well have a new Attorney General in short order.
The Irony and Hypocrisy of Ms. James Blaming Political Revenge for Her Troubles
It is particularly ironic that the media has focused all its effort on criticizing the motive it has attributed to the investigation and prosecution of Ms. James. For Ms. James to encourage that focus is the height of hypocrisy. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5596447-letitia-james-motion-to-dismiss-mortage-fraud-charges-trump-admin/. She ran for election as New York’s Attorney General on the clearly unethical and inappropriate vow to target Donald Trump https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/01/03/letitia-james-donald-trump-jones-dnt-lead-vpx.cnn Even some of President Trump’s most vocal haters recognized how very wrong Ms. James’ campaign conduct was. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5549241-kinzinger-james-trump-indictment/ Indeed, Ms. James, in the most emphatic way, gives real life to the admonition by the great jurist Robert Jackson in his famous 1940 speech, that “the most dangerous power of the prosecutor” is that “(s)he will pick people (s)he thinks (s)he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted.” https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/ag/legacy/2011/09/16/04-01-1940.pdf
Instead of focusing on the real danger to a fair and impartial justice system engendered by the promise of a candidate for the office of Attorney General to target a citizen for prosecution, the media’s angle on the story is to castigate the target of those threats for investigating Ms. James’ clearly suspicious transactions. It is as if her inappropriate campaign behavior should somehow immunize her and give her license to break the law, even if the facts were to prove that she did. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/09/letitia-james-donald-trump-indicted-00601266. Attacks on the motive the media attributes to the investigation should not provide cover for any misconduct, especially when it comes to the Attorney General.
The Facts In the Public Domain So Far are Serious and Troubling
The facts and supporting documents in the public domain should have been more than enough to for any serious investigative reporter to ask questions and demand more information. The media owes this duty to its audience. The public depends on fair and accurate reporting on matters of public interest.
On the face of it, the specter of a public official in New York, without any known significant family wealth, owning multiple properties in Virginia, might well have been expected to raise some eyebrows. The allegations, though, have been far more fact-based than mere supposition arising from appearances. The first primary allegation that surfaced publicly in this matter focused on documented circumstances involving Ms. James that arose in 2023. Documents made public indisputably demonstrate that, while serving as New York’s Attorney General, Ms. James submitted a false notarized Power of Attorney in connection with obtaining a mortgage on a property in Norfolk, Virginia, declaring unequivocally in writing: “I HEREBY DECLARE that I intend to occupy this property as my principal residence.” https://whitecollarfraud.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2023-08-30-Shamice-Thompson-Hairston-and-Letitia-A-James-Deed-and-Deed-of-Trust.pdf This signed and notarized Declaration executed by Attorney General James is patently false. New York’s chief law enforcement officer does not occupy as her principal residence a home in Norfolk, Virgina and most assuredly never intended to while serving as New York’s Attorney General.
In connection with the allegations against her, Ms. James enlisted the services of a prominent lawyer in Washington, DC and in a lengthy letter to the United States Attorney General, two years later, he dismissed this Declaration as a “mistake” by Ms. James, which he wrote was contradicted by other documents related to the mortgage application. https://whitecollarfraud.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025-04-24-NY-AG-Letita-James-Letter-to-Pam-Bondi-1.pdf. Of course, this “mistake” included other language emphasizing the sanctity and importance of the document, and not only was it notarized, but it was also signed by two witnesses who attested to being present with Ms. James when she signed the false document.
It did not sufficiently pique the interest of even one reporter at the New York Times, for example, to investigate the execution of a false declaration by the State Attorney General, accompanied by two supporting witnesses? It is not as if Ms. James mistakenly marked a wrong blank on a form; she made the affirmative declaration that she would occupy the Virginia home as her principal residence and she had two people attest to witnessing her declaration. Query whether either of her witnesses also works in the Attorney General’s office? Perhaps not coincidentally, the practice in the mortgage industry is to give a more favorable interest rate to a borrower who will be occupying a property as her principal residence. https://whitecollarfraud.com/2025/04/24/debunking-letitia-james-mistake-defense/.
On October 9, 2025, a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted Attorney General James for the federal crimes of Bank Fraud and Making False Statements to a Financial Institution. These charges carry statutory maximum sentences of 30 years imprisonment, a million dollar fine, and criminal forfeiture upon conviction.
Early speculation when news of the indictment leaked, was that this was a prosecution over that false declaration by Ms. James in connection with the property described above. When the indictment was publicly released, however, it became clear, instead, that Ms. James was being prosecuted for allegedly making false statements and committing bank fraud in connection with yet another Virginia property she bought.
The allegations in the indictment, returned by a grand jury after hearing the evidence, at a minimum should have motivated every investigative journalist in the country, and certainly in New York, to conduct her or his own investigation into the conduct of New York’s Attorney General. On the face of the indictment, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that Ms. James committed a crime if the allegations are proven.
This is most tellingly demonstrated, of course, by considering the allegations themselves. Count One of the indictment charged that Ms. James falsely represented to the lender that she would be using this other Virginia property as her secondary residence, which would lead to more favorable lending terms than if the property were a rental property. To qualify as a secondary residence, however, the owner must occupy the property a statutory minimum number of days each year and it is to be distinguished from a rental property. According to the indictment, however, while Attorney General James allegedly represented to the lender that it would be her secondary residence, she allegedly represented to the IRS in filing her tax return, that she spent zero days occupying the property and treated the property for tax purposes as a rental property, claiming deductions for expenses and receiving “thousand(s) of dollars in rent. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26184196-letitia-james-federal-indictment/
The Charges Brought So Far Raise Additional Logical Questions
If nothing else, the indictment should raise red flags and provide fodder for a serious investigation by the media. How can these two seemingly irreconcilable allegations both be consistent with honest behavior. Beyond that, any investigative journalist looking to find out the truth and accurately report to the public about the integrity of New York’s Attorney General should demand answers to questions that logically flow from the underlying scenario.
For example, surely an insurance policy was required for the property. Did Ms. James apply and obtain a policy based on the property’s use as her second residence or as a rental property? Did Ms. James ever file an insurance claim for any loss associated with the property? If so, did she make the claim as a resident (after allegedly telling the IRS she spent zero days in residence there) or did she have a landlord policy and, if so, what was the basis for any loss claimed. Can what Ms. James represented to the IRS be reconciled with what she represented to the lender to get the benefit of a preferential loan rate?
No Matter What Happens with the Criminal Prosecution a Full Public Accounting is Required and Must be Demanded and Ms. James Must Be Fully Forthcoming
Eventually, the indictment was dismissed by a court based entirely on a procedural issue related to the appointment of the United States Attorney who stepped up and presented the case to the grand jury as she was assigned to do. The dismissal of the indictment, of course, had nothing whatsoever to do with the merits of the allegations the grand jury charged against Ms. James and was entirely avoidable. In fact, if the Department of Justice had met its responsibilities and provided just a modicum of support for the courageous, duty-bound newly appointed U.S. Attorney, by simply assigning an Assistant to accompany her in the grand jury room, the indictment indisputably would not have been dismissed. Since then, the Department of Justice inexplicably has made one after another misstep in this prosecution, leaving open the possibility that Ms. James might evade accountability through our justice system altogether.
To be sure, this only highlights the vitally important role the media and investigative journalists play in our democracy. Surely, whatever happens with respect to the criminal prosecution, the public, and especially the voting public, must be provided with a complete and accurate rendering of the facts underlying the very serious criminal charges that a grand jury found probable cause to return against Ms. James. At a minimum, she must be held accountable to the electorate for any transgressions of the law she has committed.
Ms. James, like every criminal defendant, is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until proven to be guilty. She breached that guarantee repeatedly in her pursuit of President Trump; but she is entitled to its benefit nevertheless. The presumption of innocence is paramount and it must be applied at all times in a criminal prosecution.
But the independent duty of a journalist to investigate the conduct of our public officials when such allegations are raised and to report the facts also is vitally important to the integrity of our justice system. Good government in a democracy often depends on an active and responsible Fourth Estate, motivated by a search for truth and not by a political agenda. It is time for responsible members of the media to fully and thoroughly investigate the conduct alleged against Ms. James by a federal grand jury and all related facts as suggested above.
Attorney General James should welcome a full public investigation and she should willingly provide all relevant documents and information and make herself available for a full public inquiry under oath and on the record.
The American people deserve to know the truth and Ms. James deserves to have her name cleared if, indeed, she has done nothing wrong.
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