This Time’s the Charm? Trump Targets Letitia James Yet Again
The Trump administration is giving its investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James another shot.
The president shared a New York Post report to his Truth Social page Sunday night, effectively affirming that federal prosecutors are working toward more potential charges against James.
This case seemingly accuses James of alleged campaign misconduct over a total of $36,000 that her campaign paid to Iyesata Marsh, her longtime hairdresser, between 2018 and 2019. Roughly $22,000 of the payments were intended as payment for James’s use of Marsh’s studio as a late-stage campaign office in the last quarter of the year, according to a 2019 Wall Street Journal report.
The New York Times reported that prosecutors sought to speak with Marsh about the payments after she herself was indicted and charged with bank fraud and identity theft regarding the purchase of a Land Rover several years ago.
New York’s top cop has become one of the president’s chief legal adversaries since Donald Trump’s bank fraud case, when James successfully proved Trump was guilty of lying to banks. He was ordered to cough up nearly half a billion dollars in 2024—but has yet to do so.
In April, the Trump administration launched an investigation into James’s personal finances, accusing the attorney general of lying on her bank statements in order to obtain better mortgage rates. At the time, Trump referred to James as a “totally corrupt politician” and a “wacky crook,” and accused New York’s first Black woman in statewide office of being “racist.”
But that case completely fell apart in November, when a judge ruled that the administration had improperly appointed the lead attorney, Lindsey Halligan, who had no prosecutorial experience at all. Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Siebert, was squeezed out of his position overseeing the legal matters of the Eastern District of Virginia after he revealed he couldn’t find incriminating evidence to substantiate Trump’s case against James.
The Justice Department has since tried—and failed—two more times to prosecute James. But Trump’s latest efforts may be a dud thanks to the loud mouths of some of his own staff: In December, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles fessed to Vanity Fair that the president’s flimsy charges against James were his “one retribution,” an admission that would give James’s legal defense plenty of reason to toss his cases against her for eternity.