New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted Thursday on mortgage fraud charges in a case that President Donald Trump urged his Justice Department to bring after he vowed retribution on his biggest political enemies. James, a Democrat who infuriated Trump after his first term with a lawsuit alleging that he built his business empire on lies about his wealth, was charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020. The top federal prosecutor for eastern Virginia, a former Trump aide, personally presented the case to the grand jury weeks after she was thrust into the role amid the administration's pressure to deliver charges.

The indictment, two weeks after a separate criminal case charging former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress, is the latest indication of the Trump administration's norm-busting determination to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to pursue the president's political foes and public figures who once investigated him. In a lengthy statement, James decried the indictment as 'nothing more than a continuation of the president's desperate weaponisation of our justice system.'