‘Chilling’: Jeffrey Toobin Flummoxed by Trump DOJ’s ‘Bizarre Case’ Against Letitia James
Former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin said the Department of Justice’s case against New York Attorney General Letitia James is “bizarre” for multiple reasons.
On Thursday, James was indicted on charges of bank fraud and making a false statement stemming from a mortgage application. The charges come just weeks after President Donald Trump criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi in a public social media post that, according to White House officials, was intended to be a private message.
“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action,'” Trump wrote on Sept. 20. “Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia [sic]??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.”
Trump has feuded with James in the wake of her civil prosecution of the Trump Organization, which resulted in the president being found liable for fraud last year. Trump was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars, but the judgment was later thrown out by an appeals court.
Toobin appeared on Thursday’s AC360 on CNN, where he offered his reaction to the James indictment, which was undertaken by acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia. Trump appointed her to the post after ousting his previously handpicked U.S. Attorney, Erik Siebert, who declined to pursue charges against James.
“It’s a bizarre case in many respects,” he began. “First of all, it’s incredibly small potatoes. This is a house that was purchased for $137,000 in 2020, a year when the average house in America was sold for $383,000. So any mortgage, any insurance on a house of that value is going to be very small, and in ordinary circumstances wouldn’t draw the attention of the Department of Justice. But more importantly, what is so chilling about this case is that ever since Watergate, presidents have imposed on themselves the rule that they do not interfere in criminal prosecutions, much less demand them.”
Toobin noted that the career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia believed the James case to be “unworthy.”
“That’s a really chilling example of how the criminal justice system is not supposed to work,” he added.
Host Anderson Cooper pointed to remarks James made immediately after being elected attorney general in which James pledged to sue Trump.
“That’s not a great look,” Cooper said.
“We live in a system where attorneys general and district attorneys in the United States, unlike almost any other country, are elected officials, are politicians,” Toobin replied. “So, they run for office making political statements. That’s how our system works. It’s not pretty. I don’t think it’s a great system, but there’s nothing uncommon about it. The other point to make, though, is just because she made inappropriate comments, that doesn’t mean she should get indicted for fraud years later. I mean, we’re not supposed to live in a system of that kind of tit for tat. Criminal cases are supposed to stand or fall on their own merits.”
Watch above via CNN.
