GWU law professor Jonathan Turley appeared on Fox Business Thursday to call out a “breathtaking irony” in Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James’ legal defense.
Federal authorities opened a criminal investigation into James after a federal housing official accused her of falsifying mortgage documents. During an appearance on “The Evening Edit,” Turley pointed out what he sees as a glaring double standard in how James is now pleading for the leniency she once denied President Donald Trump.
“So the karma is crushing here. But the greatest irony, of course, is to hear her counsel and her spokesperson say ‘This is just wrong because Trump campaigned on moving against his enemies.’ For those of us who have covered this litigation for years, having those words come out of the mouths of James’ staff really is breathtaking,” Turley told host Elizabeth MacDonald. “She campaigned on a promise to bag Donald Trump on something. She didn’t even bother to name what it was. She literally campaigned on the promise that she would nail him on anything, and then she filled in the violation later.”
Turley explained the contradictions in James’ defense strategy and said that her legal team is now arguing that discrepancies in documents, such as questions about a primary residence and number of units in a building, should be dismissed due to understandable error or misinterpretation.
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“The James defense team is saying that there were contradictions that were corrected, that, for example, that home was the primary residence of the other signatory. But there are contradictions here. It’s an ironic defense because they’re saying, ‘Look, if the bank simply looked into this on their own, they could see that these were more units than just for, that this was not the primary residence of James,’” Turley said.
Turley emphasized that James is now leaning on the very arguments she once rejected.
“That’s a type of understanding and leeway that she refused to allow to Donald Trump. She insisted that everything that was signed in her name, and it was signed in his name, I should say, really are bound legally to him,” Turley said. “And so they said you have an obligation to make sure everything filed was absolutely accurate.”
James, who pledged during her 2018 campaign to investigate Trump, announced a lawsuit Sunday accusing his administration of deliberately cutting funds to the Department of Health and Human Services. She filed a separate suit in 2022 alleging Trump inflated the value of his properties to obtain loans, which resulted in a $450 million judgment in early 2024.
James is now facing serious scrutiny over allegations she falsified mortgage filings, an investigation sparked in part by on-the-ground reporting from Nick Pope at the Daily Caller News Foundation. Pope and fellow reporter Myles Morrell were the first journalists to visit the properties in question. They uncovered details that challenge James’ official claims and raise new questions about who actually resides there.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox Business)
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