Trump Attorney Turned Prosecutor Faces Scrutiny After Charging New York AG Letitia James

Octo­ber 26, 2025

A court­room clash in New York has set off a polit­i­cal and legal firestorm after New York Attor­ney Gen­er­al Leti­tia James appeared in fed­er­al court to face charges of alleged mort­gage fraud—charges she has firm­ly denied as polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed.

The case was brought by inter­im U.S. Attor­ney Lind­sey Hal­li­gan, a for­mer mem­ber of Don­ald Trump’s legal team who has no pri­or pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al expe­ri­ence. Hal­li­gan accused James of mis­lead­ing a bank in order to secure favor­able mort­gage terms, a claim that James and her legal team have dis­missed as “base­less” and “an abuse of the jus­tice sys­tem.”

Dur­ing her first court appear­ance, James entered a plea of not guilty, call­ing the charges a “des­per­ate and trans­par­ent attempt” to under­mine her cred­i­bil­i­ty fol­low­ing her civ­il pros­e­cu­tion of Trump and his family’s busi­ness empire.

Criticism Over Halligan’s Appointment and Experience

Legal ana­lysts and polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tors quick­ly raised con­cerns about Halligan’s qual­i­fi­ca­tions and poten­tial con­flicts of inter­est.

On MSNBC’s The Week­end, con­trib­u­tor Sam Stein said the move “feels more like polit­i­cal ret­ri­bu­tion than legit­i­mate law enforce­ment.”

George­town law pro­fes­sor and MSNBC legal ana­lyst Paul But­ler went fur­ther, say­ing, “She lit­er­al­ly does not know what she is doing. Hal­li­gan has nev­er tried a crim­i­nal case, nev­er han­dled a fed­er­al indict­ment, and is now lead­ing a pros­e­cu­tion against one of the most promi­nent state attor­neys gen­er­al in the coun­try.”

A Political and Legal Powder Keg

Halligan’s appoint­ment as inter­im U.S. Attor­ney drew imme­di­ate scruti­ny due to her pri­or work as part of Trump’s defense team dur­ing sev­er­al high-pro­file inves­ti­ga­tions. Crit­ics argue the indict­ment of James—who suc­cess­ful­ly sued Trump in New York for busi­ness fraud—creates the appear­ance of polit­i­cal retal­i­a­tion.

The Jus­tice Depart­ment has not com­ment­ed pub­licly on Halligan’s appoint­ment or the deci­sion to pur­sue the case.

Mean­while, James vowed to fight the charges “vig­or­ous­ly and trans­par­ent­ly,” call­ing them an attack not just on her but on “every pub­lic ser­vant who stands up to cor­rup­tion.”

“This is not about mort­gages,” she said out­side the cour­t­house. “It’s about intim­i­da­tion. But I’m not intim­i­dat­ed.”

The case is expect­ed to pro­ceed to tri­al ear­ly next year, set­ting the stage for anoth­er polit­i­cal­ly charged legal bat­tle with nation­al impli­ca­tions.