There seems to be a direct correlation between how much trouble a Democrat politician is in, and how loud and animated they are in response to it. If this theorem holds true, it appears New York Attorney General Letitia James is in a great deal of trouble.
James’s performance at this week’s campaign rally for Zohran Mamdani, the socialist frontrunner for mayor in New York City, was punctuated by James yelling, wagging her finger and raising her fist in the air to denounce her grand jury indictment on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
“We see powerful voices trying to silence truth, punish dissent − and, yes, weaponize justice for political gain,” said James during her thundering speech at the Mamdani rally. “This, my friends, is a defining moment in our history.” It may indeed be a defining moment in the history of James’s career and her family, and the absurdities are many.
James wants us to believe that the indictments handed up by a federal grand jury of local citizens in Virginia, where the alleged crimes are being investigated and tried, constitutes a punishment of dissent and a silencing of truth. Never mind that the grand jury was convened in Alexandria, which voted for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in 2024 by a 35 point margin and isn’t exactly what you’d call MAGA country. The justice system is out to get her.
Absurdities multiply in the context of James’s various prosecutions of Trump and others earlier this decade, when she repeatedly declared that “No one is above the law.” James made this statement no less than 15 times over the past five years, but she’s singing a different tune now that the shoe is on the other foot.
The escalation of sound and fury by James comes in the face of a prosecution featuring multiple documents showing multiple inconsistencies and contradictions between the terms of the loan James obtained for a house in Norfolk, Virginia, and the actual use of that property. The case appears so clear cut that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, no friend of the president, declared the case could be successfully prosecuted by “a first year law student.”
Then there are James’s tax returns claiming rental income from the property, another contradiction of the terms of the purchase of the house. It seems inconceivable that anyone would claim additional taxable income from rent on a house in another state unless it was true. This suggests the property was not a primary residence unless James found a way to charge herself rent so she could pay tax on it.
Adding to the absurdity is that one of James’s relatives who lived in the house is a fugitive from justice. James’s grandniece, Nakia Thompson, is on the lam from authorities in North Carolina, where she was convicted on multiple charges including assault and battery. Keith Acree, communications director for the North Carolina Department of Corrections, described Thompson as, "an absconder,” who is “considered a fugitive,” while adding that Thompson, “has willfully avoided probation supervision.” Thompson testified in June that she’d been living in the Norfolk house, but it’s not clear whether James knew she was harboring a fugitive, which is also against the law.
James is channeling Pulitzer Prize winning poet Carl Sandburg, who famously observed, “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.” James is certainly yelling like hell and if she’s not pounding a table with her fist, she’s waving it in the air. The woman is clearly in trouble.
Given these facts and others not yet revealed, James has a pretty tough row to hoe in court. But anything can happen at trial; all it takes is one juror suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome to hang a jury and lead to a mistrial. That’s entirely possible given that the jury pool will largely come from a jurisdiction that voted for Harris last year by a two-to-one margin. Whether James gets what she deserves is an open question but one can always hope that honest men and women can agree with her when she says no one is above the law.
Scott Hogenson is the founding editor of Brent Bozell’s CNSNews.com and was previously a member of the academic staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he lectured in the School of Journalism. He’s worked as a broadcast editor for United Press International and as a contributing editor for National Public Radio. Scott also served on four presidential campaigns with the Republican National Committee and directed talk radio operations for six national GOP conventions.