Letitia James thought she was untouchable after going after Donald Trump.
But the tables just turned in a big way.
And Letitia James just got hit with one surprise that could leave her facing serious jail time.
Obama-appointed judge unseals bombshell documents
Unsealed court documents revealed that New York Attorney General Letitia James is fighting a federal criminal investigation into alleged "selective enforcement" in her cases against Donald Trump's business and the National Rifle Association.¹
Judge Lorna Schofield, an Obama appointee, made the shocking revelation when she ordered the filings made public.
"Unsealing this action is not only permissible but compelled," Schofield wrote in her order.² "One simple fact drives this conclusion: the information at issue is not secret."
The Department of Justice issued subpoenas in August examining James's civil fraud case against Trump and his company, along with her aggressive pursuit of the NRA.³
James's attorneys are scrambling to block those subpoenas, claiming the probe represents "retaliation by the Executive Branch."⁴
Wait, it gets better.
This comes on top of James already facing bank fraud charges in Virginia, where she was indicted in October on two counts for allegedly lying on a mortgage application.⁵
So the woman who went after Trump for allegedly inflating property values got caught allegedly lying about her own property to save a few bucks.⁶
Career prosecutors who looked at the Virginia case thought the evidence was garbage and refused to indict her.⁷
They got fired for it.
James's attorneys cry foul about Trump connection
Here's where this gets rich.
James's legal team is arguing that Trump failed to press selective prosecution claims during his own trial, so he shouldn't get to investigate her now.
"Now that he has returned to the Oval Office and placed his personal lawyers at the highest levels of DOJ, President Trump is using the grand jury subpoena power to target" James's office, her attorneys wrote in the unsealed filing.⁸
Translation: James can dish it out but can't take it when the same scrutiny gets turned on her.
After suing Trump in 2022 for allegedly inflating his property values, James secured a $454 million civil fraud judgment against him.⁹
A New York appeals court tossed that half-billion-dollar penalty in August, calling it "excessive."¹⁰
But here's the kicker: the court still upheld the fraud finding even as it threw out the astronomical fine.
Which means James spent years and millions in taxpayer money to win a case where Trump ultimately paid nothing.
The DOJ's investigation appears focused on whether James brought her cases against Trump and the NRA for political reasons rather than legitimate law enforcement purposes.
One dissenting judge in Trump's appeals case specifically highlighted James's biased public statements and political motives.¹¹
James's attorneys argue that one judge's dissenting opinion isn't enough to justify a federal subpoena.
But that ignores a critical fact: James ran for Attorney General in 2018 promising to "take on the NRA" and calling Trump an "illegitimate president."¹²
She literally campaigned on destroying them before she had a shred of evidence.
Weeks before her election, she told Ebony magazine the NRA was "a terrorist organization."¹³
Those aren't the words of an impartial law enforcement officer.
That's a politician who decided who the bad guys were before she ever looked at the evidence.
The NRA case shows the same pattern
James sued the NRA in August 2020, seeking to dissolve the organization entirely and seize its assets after promising on the campaign trail to target the gun rights group.¹⁴
How'd that work out for her?
After a years-long legal battle that cost the NRA over $100 million in legal fees, James largely lost.
A judge denied her request to dissolve the NRA and rejected her demand for a court-appointed monitor.¹⁵
The NRA paid no fines or penalties under the final judgment.¹⁶
Zero. Zilch. Nothing.
The court ordered compliance measures the NRA itself had proposed and was already implementing.
So James burned through years of taxpayer resources, damaged the NRA's reputation, and walked away with essentially nothing to show for it except proving she'd weaponized her office for political purposes.
James's aggressive pursuit of both Trump and the NRA followed explicit campaign promises to go after them, raising serious questions about whether she abused her office for political purposes.
Federal investigators now want to examine whether she selectively enforced New York law to target conservative figures and organizations she opposed politically.
James is also challenging the appointment of Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in Virginia, who brought the mortgage fraud charges.¹⁷
James claims Halligan was improperly appointed just days before indicting her, calling it an attempt to "sidestep the constitutional and statutory limitations on the appointment of U.S. Attorneys."¹⁸
Former FBI Director James Comey is making the same argument in his own criminal case brought by Halligan.¹⁹
Both James and Comey claim they're victims of politically motivated prosecutions.
The irony is thick enough to cut with a knife.
Trump faced prosecution after career prosecutors at the Justice Department spent years investigating him.
James and Comey are facing scrutiny only after President Trump publicly called for investigations into whether they abused their positions to target him for political reasons.
Big difference.
James played politics with her office for years, promising to destroy Trump and the NRA before she even had evidence of wrongdoing.
Now she's crying selective prosecution when federal investigators want to examine whether she did exactly what she's accused of doing: weaponizing law enforcement for political purposes.
The documents unsealed Friday show James faces not just the Virginia mortgage fraud case, but a separate federal criminal probe into her conduct as Attorney General.
That's two separate investigations into potential criminal wrongdoing by the woman who spent years trying to bankrupt Trump and destroy the NRA.
Let that sink in for a moment.
The New York Attorney General who made her entire career going after conservatives is now facing the same federal scrutiny she wielded like a weapon against her political enemies.
James loved the spotlight when she was the one doing the investigating.
She gave speeches about taking down Trump. She promised to destroy the NRA. She positioned herself as the crusader fighting corruption.
But now that federal investigators want to know if she's the corrupt one, suddenly she's playing the victim and screaming about political persecution.
You can't make this stuff up.
James spent years accusing Trump of fraud while allegedly committing fraud herself on her own mortgage application.
She went after Trump for inflating property values to get better loan terms while allegedly lying about her property to get better loan terms.
She wielded the full power of the New York Attorney General's office to punish her political enemies, and now she's shocked — shocked! — that federal prosecutors might examine whether she abused that power.
The hypocrisy isn't just stunning. It's breathtaking.
And the best part? James did this to herself. Every campaign speech where she promised to destroy Trump. Every press conference where she declared the NRA a terrorist organization. Every legal filing that reeked of political motivation rather than legitimate law enforcement.
It's all on the record. And now federal investigators are reading that record very carefully.
James wanted to be a political crusader instead of an impartial prosecutor. She got her wish. Now she gets to live with the consequences.
¹ Daily Caller, "Tish James Is Fighting Another DOJ Probe For 'Selective Enforcement' Against Trump's Business, NRA, Unsealed Docs Show," November 1, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ CNN, "Letitia James pleaded not guilty to charges brought by Trump's Justice Department," October 24, 2025.
⁶ CNN, "What to know about the Letitia James case and what happens next," October 10, 2025.
⁷ Wikipedia, "Prosecution of Letitia James," November 1, 2025.
⁸ Daily Caller, "Tish James Is Fighting Another DOJ Probe For 'Selective Enforcement' Against Trump's Business, NRA, Unsealed Docs Show," November 1, 2025.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² FactCheck.org, "Appraising the Federal Indictment of Letitia James," October 15, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ National Rifle Association, "NRA Successfully Resolves Longstanding Legal Battle with New York Attorney General," 2025.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ CNN, "Letitia James pleaded not guilty to charges brought by Trump's Justice Department," October 24, 2025.
¹⁸ Ibid.
¹⁹ Ibid.
