Grand Jury Refuses to Reindict Trump Foe Letitia James for Mortage Fraud — For Second Time in a Week

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

A federal grand jury in Virginia refused to reindict New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud for the second time in a week, according to a report by ABC News.

James drew President Donald Trump’s ire when her office prosecuted him, the Trump Org, and several of his family members, and she was charged with mortgage fraud by the president’s former attorney and his handpicked appointee as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan.

Halligan also charged former FBI Director James Comey with making a false statement to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

Both James and Comey pleaded not guilty. These prosecutions were widely panned as lacking in legal merit, even by numerous conservatives, with many viewing the cases as a politically motivated “revenge tour” on behalf of an aggrieved president.

In November, U.S. District Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie for the District of South Carolina, a Clinton appointee, dismissed the cases against James and Comey, ruling that Halligan was unlawfully appointed, among other reasons.

In Comey’s case, Currie noted that the full grand jury never saw the full indictment and that the statute of limitations had passed. Nonetheless, Trump’s Department of Justice has confirmed it is trying to bring a new indictment against Comey.

On December 4, the DOJ attempted to get a federal grand jury based in Norfolk in the Eastern District of Virginia to indict James again but failed.

Just one week later, ABC News’ Washington Managing Editor Katherine Faulders reported that a Virginia grand jury had once again “refused to indict” James for alleged mortgage fraud, citing sources who spoke to her and her colleagues Alex Mallin and Nicholas Kerr.

The second grand jury was based in Alexandria, according to CNN.

This is a breaking news story and has been updated.