New York Attorney General Letitia James keeps getting worse and worse legal news. Court documents unsealed Friday reveal James filed legal motions to block Department of Justice subpoenas investigating if her office engaged in criminal “selective enforcement” of laws.
Judge Lorna Schofield ordered the documents made public, writing that James’s effort to block the subpoenas was a matter “of national concern, with implications that stretch well beyond this action.”
“Unsealing this action is not only permissible but compelled. One simple fact drives this conclusion: the information at issue is not secret,” she wrote.
Acting U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III issued subpoenas in August demanding records from James’ civil fraud case against Trump and his company, along with her lawsuit against the NRA. The subpoenas also demanded records of the communications between James’s office and outside parties about both cases.
James’s attorneys fired back that the order is too difficult, and would involve reviewing millions of pages of documents. They argue this “would virtually cripple [the attorney general’s] ability to pursue pending and future investigations and litigation, including more than 30 lawsuits against the federal government.”
Of course, James faces other serious legal troubles. She was indicted in October on federal mortgage fraud charges in Virginia. The two charges allege James committed bank fraud and submitted false statements to a financial institution to get favorable loans. James pleaded not guilty.
The NRA welcomed news of the DOJ investigation, and CEO Doug Hamlin released a statement condemning James.
“She uses her powers as an elected official to try, in her words, to ‘dissolve the organization in its entirety,’ thus silencing the voice of millions of our members. That she now expresses concerns over ‘weaponization’ is the height of hypocrisy — an utter lack of self-awareness at the very least.”
Abbe Lowell, James’s attorney, called the DOJ investigation a political move.
“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,” Lowell 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.”
James sued Trump in 2022, claiming he overvalued his assets to get better loan terms. A judge awarded James’s office over $454 million in February 2024. A New York appeals court threw out the penalty in August, calling it “excessive.”