Prosecutors tried and failed to add 3rd felony charge against Letitia James, court docs show
Source: Politico
12/17/2025 11:44 PM EST
Federal prosecutors attempted to get a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, to add a third felony charge to a failed indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James last week, while omitting earlier claims that she fraudulently converted a second home into a rental property. The third proposed charge, which hasn’t been previously reported, was an additional count of making a false statement to a financial institution. The earlier indictment against James consisted of one such false statement count and one count of bank fraud.
The additional charge in the failed indictment attempt could have exposed James, 67, to more prison time because each count carries a potential penalty of 30 years in prison, and a fine up to $1 million. However, defendants are typically sentenced under federal guidelines that result in sentences well below the maximum, especially for those without prior criminal records.
Prosecutors also asked a magistrate judge to keep records of the proposed indictment sealed after grand jurors rejected all three alleged charges, but the judge declined the request, according to court records. U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter wrote in an order Monday that the Alexandria grand jury presented the rejected indictment, known as a “no true bill,” in open court. He added that facts about the proceeding also leaked to news outlets, and that Justice Department lawyers failed to move to seal the documents until the day after they were filed in the court’s public docket.
“The Court will not speculate why the grand jury disclosed the no bill in open court,” Porter wrote, saying public disclosure serves the interest of transparency given that the criminal allegations against James are already well publicized and the decision not to indict was publicly reported even before the foreperson appeared before the judge.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/17/letitia-james-indictment-third-charge-00697148
Link to ORDER (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26381825-jamesnobillsealord121525/
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26381825/jamesnobillsealord121525.pdf