Topline
New York Attorney General Letitia James was arraigned Friday at a federal courthouse in Virginia, pleading not guilty to charges of bank fraud and false statements—as legal experts and new reporting continue to undercut the strength of the government’s case against the longtime Trump foe.
New York Attorney General Letitia James appears at a press conference on October 21, 2025 in New York City.
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Key Facts
James was arraigned at 11 a.m. EDT in the Eastern District of Virginia, entering her plea of not guilty after she was indicted on counts of bank fraud and false statements to financial institutions.
The New York attorney general, a longtime political enemy of President Donald Trump, was indicted based on allegations that she improperly claimed a property in Virginia was a second residence rather than an investment property, allowing her to obtain better terms on her mortgage.
James has denied the allegations against her, saying in a video after her indictment that the charges are “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”
Her lawyers have already said in court filings they plan to challenge the indictment by arguing U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan—the former Trump defense attorney now leading the Eastern District of Virginia—was improperly appointed, as former FBI Director James Comey, also indicted in that district, has already done.
What To Watch For
James is expected to plead not guilty when she’s arraigned on Friday, and be released from custody. It’s possible a trial date could also be set on Friday, and her attorney Abbe Lowell has suggested the New York official wants the case to proceed swiftly, saying in a court filing in a different case that James’ “intention” is “to have that case tried in late January or into February 2026.”
Surprising Fact
ABC News reported Thursday prosecutors investigating James’ case previously found evidence that appears to undercut claims made in the indictment, which legal experts had already suggested is not a particularly strong case. The indictment alleges James rented her Virginia residence to a family of three and has made “thousands” of dollars in rental income, also alleging that securing more favorable mortgage terms ultimately saved James $17,837 over the life of the loan. Prosecutors who compiled a memo prior to James’ indictment found that she was actually letting her great-niece live rent-free in the property, however, only collecting $1,350 for utilities that she disclosed on her 2020 tax return. James likely only got a financial benefit of about $800 in the year she purchased the home, and any benefit from more favorable mortgage terms would only save her $10,800 over the 30-year life of the mortgage, or between $15 and $30 a month. Investigators also believed it would be difficult to prove any wrongdoing by James, according to the memo, because of vagueness in the federal mortgage guidelines around a property owner’s occupancy. The reporting on the memo comes after no career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia signed on to the indictment against James—with Halligan now instead getting legal help from prosecutors in other districts—and after the district’s previous U.S. Attorney, Erik Siebert, was ousted from his job and replaced with Halligan, reportedly because he refused to prosecute James and Comey. Halligan, who has no prior prosecutorial experience, has also since fired the prosecutor who wrote the James memo, ABC reports.
Tangent
In addition to signaling they intend to challenge Halligan’s appointment as U.S. attorney, James’ legal team has also asked the court to restrict the prosecutor from making statements about the case outside of court. The motion comes after Lawfare journalist Anna Bower reported Halligan had contacted her through Signal to object to Bower’s reporting about James’ case and the grand jury that indicted the attorney general. Halligan claimed Bower was reporting things that were “simply not true” and made comments to the journalist that concerned the grand jury proceedings, which are governed by secrecy rules. The prosecutor’s conversation with Bower—which Halligan unsuccessfully later tried to claim was “off the record” and couldn’t be reported—“ran roughshod” over federal rules governing prosecutions and attorney conduct, James’ lawyers argued, and Halligan “ignor[ed] any concerns of prejudice to the defendant, a fair trial, and rules against extrajudicial statements and pretrial publicity.”
Key Background
James was indicted after long drawing Trump’s ire, most notably by bringing a civil fraud case against the president and his company that resulted in Trump being ordered to pay a fine of more than $350 million. (An appeals court has since overturned that penalty.) She is the second major Trump foe to be indicted on criminal charges during the president’s second term, with her indictment coming after Comey was indicted on making false statements to Congress—another set of charges that legal experts have been widely skeptical of. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton was also indicted in Maryland following James being charged, though that stemmed from an investigation that began during the Biden administration and is regarded by experts as a stronger case. Trump has long vowed “retribution” against his political enemies, and Comey and James’ prosecutions came shortly after the president publicly implored Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against them. “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote on Truth Social—in a message that was reportedly intended to be a private message—describing Comey, James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. as being “guilty as hell.”
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/10/24/letitia-james-expected-to-plead-not-guilty-today-heres-what-to-know/
