Overview
- A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, declined on Dec. 11 to reindict New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage-related charges, days after a Norfolk grand jury did the same.
- The original October indictments were set aside in late November when Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed, allowing but not guaranteeing refiling.
- Prosecutors allege James obtained favorable loan terms on a 2020 Norfolk home by declaring it a second residence while renting it out, leading to bank-fraud and false-statement counts she denies.
- James’s attorney Abbe Lowell called the repeat rejection proof the case is baseless and politically driven, while legal analysts noted that grand-jury refusals are rare and signal evidentiary weakness.
- Parallel charges against former FBI Director James Comey were also dismissed over the appointment defect, and any further DOJ attempts face procedural, evidentiary, and timing hurdles under department policy and court rulings.