MSNBC’s Jen Psaki Torches ‘Petty and Weak’ Trump in Blistering Rant on Letitia James Case

MSNBC host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki torched “weak” and “petty” President Donald Trump over the fraud charges he prompted against New York Attorney General Letitia James.

News broke Thursday that AG Letitia James has been indicted on mortgage fraud charges, widely seen as the latest shoe to drop in Trump’s promised campaign of retribution against perceived enemies. James won a half-billion-dollar fraud judgment against Trump that was later set aside as “excessive.”

Other prosecutors declined to bring charges against James, and AG James calls the charges “baseless” — a fact pattern that echoes the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. Both cases were brought by Trump-picked prosecutor Lindsey Halligan after other U.S. attorneys declined them.

On Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, the host drew a connection to those indictments and a “thin-skinned” president out for revenge:

JEN PSAKI: This Monday, MSNBC’s own Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian got the scoop about yet another declination memo. Another top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia was planning to formally decline seeking charges against a Trump enemy, this time against Letitia James.

Again, the prosecutor had been working on the case, did not believe there was enough evidence to indict. That was Monday. And now today, Halligan has yet again brought charges anyway, hence all the deja vu. And again, she did it all alone, all by herself, after no other prosecutor in her more than 150 prosecutor office would join her in bringing the case.

And to understand why no one else would join her in this case, all you have to do is look at the charges. I mean, James was charged with two counts, one for bank fraud and another for making false statements to a financial institution. But what that really means in layman’s terms, I guess, is mortgage fraud.

Now that is ringing a bell for you. That is because that has become the trumped up charge of choice mortgage fraud. Trump appointed this guy, Bill Pulte, to be his little lackey over as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

And even though that agency is in charge of monitoring the macro level housing market to prevent another 2008 style crash, that is what their focus should be. Pulte has focused his energy on Trump’s enemies, instead finding their information, targeting them, making criminal referrals to the Justice Department against perceived Trump enemies like Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and you guessed it, Letitia James. All of them referred criminally for, you guessed it again, mortgage fraud.

Now, just this week, “Reuters” reported that Pulte actually violated his own agency’s ethics rules when he made those criminal referrals. Referrals like that are supposed to go to an inspector general to make sure they aren’t political. They just skipped that part. Why not? And sent his referrals straight to the Trump’s Justice Department.

Pulte, his agency and the Justice Department all declined to comment on that story. No surprise. Which is really too bad, because I would love to know how he justifies this.

Four of Trump’s own cabinet members did the same thing on their mortgages that Pulte alleges Cook, Schiff and James did. Trump’s Labor Secretary Lori Chavez DeRemer, Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. They all did the exact same thing on their mortgages that the Trump Justice Department alleges that Letitia James did.

But none of them have been indicted, at least as far as we know. Pulte hasn’t criminally referred any of them for prosecution. And I’m not holding my breath, obviously.

So, this is where we are now. Trump has demanded his political enemies be prosecuted. He has removed an experienced career prosecutor for refusing to do so without evidence, and replaced him with someone completely unqualified who was more than willing to do what those career prosecutors wouldn’t.

So yes, this is happening, and in all likelihood, it will keep happening. Trump has already said out loud that he has no plans to stop. After Comey was indicted. He gleefully said, quote, “There will be others.” Plural.

Trump has made his long list of perceived enemies clear. And now there is no longer a question of whether he can get his Justice Department to actually go after them.

But just remember, he’s doing it because he is thin-skinned and petty and weak, and the only person actually signing these indictments for him is a beauty queen turned insurance lawyer who is way out of her depth.

Watch above via MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki.