4:41Attorney General of New York Letitia James delivers remarks onstage during the 39th Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jan. 20, 2025, in New York.Roy Rochlin/Getty Images | Leon Neal/Getty Images
The animosity between President Donald Trump and New York Attorney General Letitia James, which culminated in Thursday's federal indictment, had been simmering for seven years after the New York Democrat rebuked the president and prevailed in litigation against him.
James positioned Trump and his agenda as central to her 2018 bid for the attorney general position.
"I will consistently stand up to this illegitimate president," James proclaimed in a video following her victory in the Democratic primary that year.
New York State’s newly elected Attorney General Letitia James is sworn into office and attends her and Governor Cuomo’s inauguration, Jan. 1, 2019, on Ellis Island in New York.Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
After securing the election, James informed her supporters that as attorney general, she would "cast a glaring spotlight into every obscure corner of [Trump’s] property dealings, and every transaction, demanding honesty at each step."
Trump retorted in interviews and posts, accusing the attorney general of partiality.
"It is very challenging and costly to reside in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo employs his Attorney General as a tool of coercion for his personal objectives. They initiate lawsuits regarding everything, perpetually seeking a wrongdoing," Trump posted on social media in 2019.
James criticized the president on the social media platform.
"Let there be no doubt: No individual is exempt from the law, not even the President. P.S. My name is Letitia James. (Feel free to call me Tish.)," she posted on social media.
In March 2019, the New York AG's office, which had previously contested the administration on a multitude of its policies, including the travel restriction, initiated an investigation into the Trump Organization regarding alleged fraudulent activities.
James's office scrutinized claims that the organization exaggerated the former president's net worth by several billion dollars and defrauded creditors and others with deceptive and misleading financial records.
Trump and his business associates did not cooperate with subpoenas and additional court mandates throughout the three years of the investigation. In time, the former president provided a deposition in August 2022, but consistently invoked his Fifth Amendment privileges.
A month later, James commenced a civil action against Trump, his three grown children and ex-president, the Trump Organization, and a couple of its executives, Allan Weisselberg and Jeff McConney.
Attorney General Letitia James is seated in the courtroom during the civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump at New York Supreme Court, Jan. 11, 2024, in New York.Seth Wenig/Pool/Getty Images
Trump, who entered a plea of not guilty, consistently refuted the allegations and accused James, who is Black, of being discriminatory.
The case proceeded to court in October 2023 and continued into January.
On Feb. 16, 2024, Judge Arthur Engoron declared, "In order to procure increased borrowing at diminished rates, defendants presented unmistakably deceitful financial information to accountants, resulting in deceitful financial reports."
Engoron provisionally prohibited Trump and his sons from managing New York-based enterprises and mandated Trump to remit a penalty exceeding $454 million. That amount escalated to nearly half a billion dollars owing to interest accumulated on the judgment.
Trump decried the judge and James subsequent to the pronouncement.
"A corrupt New State judge has just determined I am required to pay a fine," he stated.
James, conversely, praised her office's meticulous scrutiny.
"The scale and extent of Donald Trump's deception are astounding — as are his arrogance and conviction that regulations are not applicable to him," she expressed.
Trump contested the resolution and even urged James to dismiss the case post-election, but the New York attorney general declined.
Following the ruling, Trump persisted in denouncing James during the campaign period, and after being inaugurated into office, reiterated his assertions that she was dishonest and her suit against him was prejudiced.
Attorney General of New York Letitia James delivers remarks onstage during the 39th Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jan. 20, 2025, in New York.Roy Rochlin/Getty Images | Leon Neal/Getty Images
In August, a New York appeals court sustained Trump's accountability; nevertheless, it nullified the sanction as excessive. James conveyed her intention to challenge the judgment.
Trump escalated his condemnation of James, and in April, Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, forwarded the DOJ a criminal referral pertaining to James over a mortgage request.
The referral contended that James perpetrated fraud in 2023 during a home acquisition by falsely denoting that the residence would serve as her primary dwelling. The New York Attorney General's office accused the administration of "weaponizing the federal government."
"She will not be cowed by intimidators — irrespective of their identity," the office affirmed in a statement in April.
"It strikes me that [James] may be culpable of something, but I am truly uncertain," Trump communicated to reporters last month.
President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Oct. 9, 2025, in Washington.Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
The inquiry, nonetheless, has encountered debate.
Erik Siebert, the former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, had articulated reservations internally regarding initiating cases against James and former FBI Director James Comey, sources indicated to ABC News.
Subsequent to a five-month investigation and dialogues with more than a dozen witnesses, federal prosecutors unearthed no unambiguous evidence against James, sources informed ABC News.
Siebert tendered his resignation last month, subsequent to pressure from the administration. Trump supplanted him with Lindsey Halligan, one of Trump's former personal legal representatives lacking prosecutorial background, as the acting chief of the EDVA.
James persisted in speaking out against the president following her indictment, branding the charges as "groundless."
"This is merely an extension of the president's desperate manipulation of our judicial framework. He is compelling federal law enforcement institutions to fulfill his demands, solely because I executed my duties as the New York State Attorney General," she conveyed in a statement Thursday.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
