MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Knocks Down Case Against Trump Nemesis Letitia James Point-By-Point

MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell knocked down fraud charges President Donald Trump prompted against New York Attorney General Letitia James in detail, framing Trump as a vengeful “madman.”

News broke Thursday that 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 prosecutors passed.

On Thursday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The Last Word, O’Donnell deconstructed the case and the allegation that Halligan “offered absolutely no proof of”:

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Today, New York State Attorney General Letitia James got one of those badges when the same, possibly illegally appointed acting U.S. attorney who indicted James Comey, indicted Attorney General James.

Attorney General James is being indicted in a three and a half page, two count indictment for one count of bank fraud and one count of false statement to a financial institution, because in a mortgage application, Attorney General James indicated that she would use a second home she was buying as a second home. And then at some time after that, after she bought the home, she apparently, according to the indictment, that home quote, was not occupied or used by James as a secondary residence and was instead used as a rental investment property, renting the property to a family of three.

Now, millions of people in America have done exactly that. Millions of people in America have obtained mortgages for their primary home or their secondary home, and then decided at some point to rent out that house. And none of them thought they had to then immediately refinance their homes, because they didn’t. They were just renting out their property.

The keywords in this indictment that the most incompetent acting U.S. attorney in history offered absolutely no proof of. The keywords are, “as James then knew,” this indictment presents as a fact that attorney general James knew when she was filling out the application form, that she would later rent out the house. And if she didn’t know that at the time that she was filling out the form, or if she just hadn’t decided at the time if she was going to rent out the house, there is no possible crime in this case.

This is a state of mind crime, and the prosecution doesn’t know her state of mind. The prosecution will never be able to prove what they claim is a fact. The indictment says James represented and affirmed in uniform residential loan applications and related documents that the property would be used as a secondary residence — this is the key part — when in truth and fact, as James then knew, those are the most important words here. As James then knew, the property was intended and used as an investment property.

So, this entire case comes down to the prosecution having to prove what it claims is a fact that Attorney General James then knew, and that she intended to rent out the property. This is state of mind. You have to be able to read her state of mind to do this prosecution.

If you fill out your application for your home mortgage and you say the property is for your own use, and then after you own the property, if you decide to rent out that property, you have every legal right in the world to rent out that property.

And no one can come along and prosecute you because your mortgage application didn’t say you were going to, at some point, rent out your property.

We live in a place that we like to call free country, and one of your freedoms is renting out your property, and you can decide to do that at any time after you buy that property.

And so, imagine this prosecutor has never prosecuted a case in her life trying to convince a trial jury that Attorney General James willfully lied on the application and always knew that she was going to rent out the property. That is simply not a provable state of mind, and the prosecutor cannot call Attorney General James as a witness to ask her what her state of mind was. And so, there’s a very strong chance that this case, if it makes it to trial, will get a directed verdict from the judge finding that the prosecution was incapable of proving what it claims in writing in the indictment is a fact — Attorney General James state of mind.

So, Attorney General James is probably on her way to take her place in history with former FBI Director James Comey at the top of the Trump enemies list, and as the people who beat the madman in the White House in court, because that is what is likely to happen here.

Watch above via MSNBC’s The Last Word.