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A Trump administration official has made new criminal referrals against New York Attorney General Letitia James to federal prosecutors in Miami and Chicago for two cases of possible homeowner’s insurance fraud, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte said in a letter Wednesday to prosecutors in Florida that James may have falsified information on her homeowner’s insurance application to a Ft. Lauderdale-based company, Universal Property Insurance.
Officials in President Trump’s administration have repeatedly pursued legal actions against James, a longstanding Trump foe.
Pulte sent one of Wednesday’s referrals to Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. That prosecutor is currently leading another investigation into Obama-era officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan, over an intelligence assessment that determined that Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to help benefit Mr. Trump. Last year, Quiñones also sought records in connection with special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into Mr. Trump, sources previously said.
In a separate letter Wednesday to Andrew Boutros, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Pulte alleged James may have falsified information on an application to Illinois-based Allstate.
MS NOW was first to report on the new criminal referrals.
Asked for comment, Abbe Lowell, an attorney for James, accused the Trump administration of “abusing their power to pursue a vendetta against her by trying to rename, refile, and repeat baseless allegations.”
“These desperate tactics will fail — just as every previous attempt has failed — and exposes an Administration that has abandoned its responsibility to the American people in favor of petty political payback,” Lowell said.
CBS News has reached out to representatives for Pulte for comment.
James was charged in federal court last fall on counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, alleging she misrepresented information about a property in Virginia to seek more favorable mortgage terms.
The indictment came after Pulte had referred her to the department for possible mortgage fraud, though the charges turned on a different property that was not listed in his referral.
James denied wrongdoing in that situation and argued that the Trump administration was targeting her for political reasons. In between President Trump’s terms in the White House, James sued him in civil court for allegedly lying about the value of his real estate assets. A New York judge found Mr. Trump and his company liable for fraud and ordered them to pay hundreds of millions of dollars, but an appellate court later threw out the financial judgement.
James has taken aim at Pulte in the past over his public efforts to get her indicted. In court papers last year, James’s attorneys accused Pulte of using the Federal Housing Finance Agency — which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — into a “weapon to be brandished against President Trump’s political enemies.”
CBS News reported earlier this month that Pulte has since sought a protective security detail over threats he allegedly received in connection with the James case.
A federal judge dismissed the bank fraud indictment in November on the grounds that interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was appointed to the role unlawfully. A separate criminal case brought by Halligan against former FBI Director James Comey was also dismissed. The following month, two federal grand juries declined to re-indict James on bank fraud charges.
The indictment alleged James bought a house in Virginia in 2020 with a mortgage that required her to use it as a second home, but she instead rented it out and used it as an investment property, allowing her to get a lower mortgage rate.
Prosecutors earlier this year started a new line of inquiry that centers on financial transactions between James and her long-time hairdresser Iyesata Marsh, CBS News previously reported. The new investigation is being jointly led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Western District of Louisiana and the Northern District of New York.
