Justice Department Subpoenas Office of Letitia James, a Trump Nemesis

New York|Justice Department Subpoenas Office of Letitia James, a Trump Nemesis

The U.S. attorney in Albany has issued two broad subpoenas to Attorney General Letitia James of New York, one related to her office’s civil fraud case that resulted in a half-billion dollar penalty against President Trump, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

The second subpoena is related to another of the office’s long-running cases, against the National Rifle Association, the people said.

Ms. James has been one of Trump’s fiercest adversaries since she first ran for attorney general in 2018. In 2022, she sued him, accusing him of overvaluing his assets by billions of dollars. Mr. Trump lost and was penalized with the fine, which has since grown to more than half a billion dollars with interest. The case is on appeal.

Ms. James’s personal lawyer, Abbe Lowell, on Friday called any investigation into Mr. Trump’s fraud case “the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign.”

“Weaponizing the Department of Justice to try to punish an elected official for doing her job is an attack on the rule of law and a dangerous escalation by this administration,” he said. “If prosecutors carry out this improper tactic and are genuinely interested in the truth, we are ready and waiting with facts and the law.”

Geoff Burgan, a spokesman for Ms. James, said: “We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights.”

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. The U.S. attorney in Albany, John A. Sarcone III, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The subpoenas appear unrelated to a case involving Ms. James’s personal real-estate transactions. The existence of that investigation was publicly confirmed earlier this year by the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, but it is unclear whether or how it has progressed.

Two people familiar with the matter said the new subpoenas are part of a civil rights investigation of the state attorney general office’s work, to determine if the office violated Mr. Trump’s rights, or others.

Some of Mr. Trump’s supporters have argued that his Justice Department should pursue cases against those who investigated or prosecuted him, and suggested one particular federal law would be grounds to do so.

That statute makes it a crime to use law-enforcement authority to deprive a person of rights. Historically, it has been used to investigate and prosecute police officers or prison guards who mistreat people based on their race, religion, sex, or national origin. The law, however, does not require that motive.

Mr. Trump has attacked Ms. James directly for years. In April, he called her a “crook” in a social media post in which he called for her resignation.

This is a developing story and will be updated.