A Trump administration official made two criminal referrals Wednesday against New York Attorney General Letitia James months after the Justice Department failed for a third time in its efforts to prosecute the longtime target of President Donald Trump.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte alleged in the referrals that James committed insurance fraud, saying she may have falsified information on separate homeowner's insurance applications regarding occupancy at two homes in Norfolk, Virginia, according to documents obtained by NBC News.
One referral was made to U.S. Attorney Jason Quiñones in the Southern District of Florida and the other to U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in the Northern District of Illinois, as the insurance companies for the two respective applications, each for a different Norfolk property, are based in those jurisdictions.
“According to insurance documents published on X.com by attorney and media personality, Mike Davis (@mrddmia), it appears that a public official, Ms. Letitia James, may have falsified information on her homeowners insurance application," Pulte wrote in the referrals.
He added that based on the information from Davis, James made false representations to the respective insurance companies.
The information Davis posted was publicly available court documents from the previous criminal case against James in the Eastern District of Virginia.
MS NOW first reported the criminal referrals.
In the referral to Boutros, Pulte wrote that James "made representations that the house would be occupied by a single adult, with no children. Instead, according to the post, she knew the house was actually occupied by four people — three children and her niece."
In the referral sent to Quiñones, Pulte said James "made false representations that her property would be unoccupied five months out of the year. According to the post, this was false. The house was, in fact, occupied year-round by her niece."
James' attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, said in a statement that "Trump and his political enablers keep abusing their power to pursue a vendetta against her by trying to rename, refile, and repeat baseless allegations."
"They continue this improper revenge campaign instead of helping bring down the rising cost of living in this country," Lowell said. "These desperate tactics will fail — just as every previous attempt has failed — and exposes an Administration that has abandoned its responsibility to the American people in favor of petty political payback."
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the referrals were received by the two U.S. attorney offices but did not provide further comment.
Pulte was responsible for sending criminal referrals to the Justice Department last year against James and other prominent critics of Trump, including Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. All have denied wrongdoing.
The Justice Department has tried unsuccessfully to prosecute James three times on mortgage-related charges, with the most recent attempt failing in December after a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, refused to indict her.
The week before that, the Justice Department failed to get a new indictment against James in Norfolk. In November, a federal judge dismissed criminal indictments against James, finding that the prosecutor, Trump appointee Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed to her post as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The October indictment alleged that James falsely claimed a home in Norfolk was her second residence in order to receive a more favorable loan and then rent the home to a family of three. It came shortly after Trump had publicly called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to target James and other perceived political foes.
James sued Trump in September 2022 alleging that he and the Trump Organization had committed more than 200 instances of fraud over 10 years. That led to a judgment against Trump and top executives at the company, including a $464 million civil fraud penalty. The penalty was dismissed in an appeals ruling in August. Some of the appellate judges agreed that Trump and his companies had engaged in fraud but agreed with their colleagues that the award was an “excessive fine.”
