A Trump administration official has made new legal referrals in opposition to New York Lawyer Common Letitia James to federal prosecutors in Miami and Chicago for 2 instances of doable home-owner’s insurance coverage fraud, sources acquainted with the matter instructed CBS Information.
Federal Housing Finance Company Director Invoice Pulte stated in a letter Wednesday to prosecutors in Florida that James could have falsified info on her home-owner’s insurance coverage utility to a Ft. Lauderdale-based firm, Common Property Insurance coverage.
Officers in President Trump’s administration have repeatedly pursued authorized actions in opposition to James, a longstanding Trump foe. In a Reality Social put up Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump wrote that James had been “referred once more for legal prosecution for alleged home-owner insurance coverage fraud.”
Pulte despatched certainly one of Wednesday’s referrals to Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. Lawyer for the Southern District of Florida. That prosecutor is at present main one other investigation into Obama-era officers, together with former CIA Director John Brennan, over an intelligence evaluation that decided that Russia had tried to intervene within the 2016 presidential election to assist profit Mr. Trump. Final yr, Quiñones additionally sought data in reference to particular counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into Mr. Trump, sources beforehand stated.
In a separate letter Wednesday to Andrew Boutros, the U.S. Lawyer for the Northern District of Illinois, Pulte alleged James could have falsified info on an utility to Illinois-based Allstate.
MS NOW was first to report on the brand new legal referrals.
Requested for remark, Abbe Lowell, an legal professional for James, accused the Trump administration of “abusing their energy to pursue a vendetta in opposition to her by attempting to rename, refile, and repeat baseless allegations.”
“These determined techniques will fail — simply as each earlier try has failed — and exposes an Administration that has deserted its duty to the American individuals in favor of petty political payback,” Lowell stated.
CBS Information has reached out to representatives for Pulte for remark.
James was charged in federal courtroom final fall on counts of financial institution fraud and making false statements to a monetary establishment, alleging she misrepresented details about a property in Virginia to hunt extra favorable mortgage phrases. However these fees have been later dismissed.
The indictment got here after Pulte had referred her to the division for doable mortgage fraud, although the fees turned on a distinct property that was not listed in his referral.
James denied wrongdoing in that scenario and argued that the Trump administration was concentrating on her for political causes. In between President Trump’s phrases within the White Home, James sued him in civil courtroom for allegedly mendacity concerning the worth of his actual property property. A New York choose discovered Mr. Trump and his firm responsible for fraud and ordered them to pay a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars}, however an appellate courtroom later threw out the monetary judgement.
James has taken intention at Pulte prior to now over his public efforts to get her indicted. In courtroom papers final yr, James’s attorneys accused Pulte of utilizing the Federal Housing Finance Company — which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — right into a “weapon to be brandished in opposition to President Trump’s political enemies.”
CBS Information reported earlier this month that Pulte has since sought a protecting safety element over threats he allegedly acquired in reference to the James case.
A federal choose dismissed the financial institution fraud indictment in November on the grounds that interim U.S. Lawyer Lindsey Halligan was appointed to the function unlawfully. A separate legal case introduced by Halligan in opposition to former FBI Director James Comey was additionally dismissed. The next month, two federal grand juries declined to re-indict James on financial institution fraud fees.
The indictment alleged James purchased a home in Virginia in 2020 with a mortgage that required her to make use of it as a second house, however she as an alternative rented it out and used it as an funding property, permitting her to get a decrease mortgage fee.
Prosecutors earlier this yr began a brand new line of inquiry that facilities on monetary transactions between James and her long-time hairdresser Iyesata Marsh, CBS Information beforehand reported. The brand new investigation is being collectively led by the U.S. Lawyer’s Places of work within the Western District of Louisiana and the Northern District of New York.
