TJV Editorial: Letitia James Must Be Held to the Same Legal Standard She Demanded for Trump

If there’s one principle that New York Attorney General Letitia James has zealously paraded throughout her political career, it’s that “no one is above the law.” But recent revelations — as reported by the New York Post and detailed in a criminal referral by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte — strongly suggest that James may not be living up to that lofty ideal. In fact, she may have brazenly violated the very standards she used to pursue  President Donald Trump with relentless zeal.

According to Pulte’s explosive referral, James allegedly falsified mortgage records to secure favorable loan terms on a Virginia property she declared as her “principal residence” — all while actively serving as New York’s attorney general and legally obligated to reside in-state. Let that sink in: the same public official who built her political brand around policing financial misrepresentations by Trump and his businesses may have engaged in exactly the kind of misconduct she accused him of.

This is not a mere clerical oversight. Pulte’s referral also outlines additional misrepresentations, including her apparent claim that a five-unit building she owns in Brooklyn has only four units — a crucial distinction, as four-unit buildings qualify for residential financing with more favorable terms. Moreover, in older mortgage documents, James and her father were dubiously listed as “husband and wife,” raising still more red flags. Whether these were lies of convenience or part of a deliberate effort to deceive lenders, the hypocrisy could not be more blatant.

The timing of James’ alleged misrepresentations adds an especially damning twist: her questionable mortgage dealings occurred just as she was launching her civil fraud case against the Trump Organization. In that case, James argued that Trump, his sons, and his company overstated asset values to secure better terms from financial institutions — a tactic that, if committed by James herself, renders her entire crusade not just disingenuous, but dangerously self-serving.

The legal irony is almost too rich: James pursued Trump over documents prepared by others, yet now tries to distance herself from documents her own attorney-in-fact signed on her behalf. In her telling, when a Trump subordinate fills out a form, it’s the former president’s legal responsibility; when her own relative signs a mortgage paper under her power of attorney, it’s somehow not hers. That’s not justice — it’s a double standard cloaked in political opportunism.

Letitia James didn’t stumble into the Trump case through the normal course of an investigation. She campaigned on going after Trump — publicly vowing to uncover wrongdoing before even examining the evidence. That’s not law enforcement. That’s a vendetta disguised as a legal mission. Her case against Trump, resulting in a staggering $464 million judgment currently on appeal, was never about justice — it was about scoring political points, feeding headlines, and satisfying her progressive base.

Now that serious questions have emerged about her own financial dealings, James has offered no transparency, no explanation, and certainly no accountability. Instead, her office lazily waved off the allegations as “cherry-picked” and politically motivated. That may work for MSNBC talking heads, but it doesn’t fly for the state’s top legal officer who claims to be above politics.

You can’t run a high-profile legal assault against a former president under the banner of “no one is above the law,” and then expect immunity when the same scrutiny is turned on you. If these allegations had involved a Republican official — or, say, Donald Trump — James herself would be shouting from the rooftops, holding press conferences, and promising swift consequences. Why should she now be allowed to duck behind a wall of silence?

The people of New York deserve better than a politicized attorney general who appears to have treated mortgage law as a suggestion rather than a mandate. James should not be allowed to brush this aside with a spokesman’s talking point. The Department of Justice must fully investigate these allegations, and if wrongdoing is confirmed, James should face the same legal consequences she has so eagerly sought for others.

And let’s be clear: this is not about partisan politics. This is about integrity. The rule of law does not bend for those who enforce it. If Letitia James committed fraud to save on a mortgage — and then turned around and tried to destroy Donald Trump’s business empire for doing the same — then she is unfit to hold public office.

Letitia James told the public that “no one is above the law.”

It’s time to find out if she really meant it — or if she only meant it applies to Donald Trump.