Federal grand jury fails to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James

By Darren Lyn

HOUSTON, United States (AA) - A federal grand jury on Thursday refused to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to multiple reports.

This was the third time the US Justice Department has tried to prosecute James, who is considered one of President Donald Trump's biggest political enemies.

A federal judge last month dismissed mortgage-related charges the Justice Department had brought against James, after ruling that Trump-appointed prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, the interim US Attorney for the District of Virginia, was unlawfully appointed to that position.

The Justice Department last week also failed to secure a new indictment of alleged mortgage fraud against James in Norfolk, Virginia.

James's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement: "For the second time in seven days, the Department of Justice has failed in its clear attempt to fulfill President Trump’s political vendetta against Attorney General James. This unprecedented rejection makes even clearer that this case should never have seen the light of day."

"This case already has been a stain on this Department’s reputation and raises troubling questions about its integrity," Lowell continued. "Any further attempt to revive these discredited charges would be a mockery of our system of justice."

James has been a political target of Trump, after she investigated the Trump Organization for fraud, saying he and company leaders "reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains," by routinely overvaluing properties and obtaining loans and insurance policies at lower rates.

Trump was found liable for fraud in the New York civil suit for $464 million. A state appeals court upheld the fraud ruling.

Legal experts say it is rare for a federal grand jury to reject charges because the process is stacked in the government's favor, meaning that prosecutors only need to convince 12 of at least 16 grand jurors that they met the probable cause threshold. That is a much lower standard than the unanimous "beyond a reasonable doubt" requirement for securing a conviction at trial before a panel of jurors.

The Justice Department has not yet commented on Thursday's refusal to indict James.