Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani defended Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James following her grand jury indictment on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, calling it a “shameless act of political retribution” from the Trump administration.
“This is not simply an attack on Attorney General Tish James,” Mamdani said Friday during a press conference with local New York leaders speaking out in defense of James. “This is an attack on our city. And each one of us represents different parts of that same city, and we speak with one voice today.”
A grand jury in Virginia indicted James Thursday months after Federal Housing Finance Director Bill Pulte said in a criminal referral to the Department of Justice in April that James allegedly falsified mortgage records to obtain more favorable loans.
Mamdani — a left-wing candidate who has advocated for and backed communist principles, including calling for the seizure of the “means of production” — said he spoke with James after she was indicted Thursday and relayed she was confident she would win the case against her.
LETITIA JAMES’ OWN WORDS COME BACK TO HAUNT HER AFTER FEDERAL BANK FRAUD CHARGES FILED
“Last night, she told me, ‘Don’t worry about me,'” he said. “And that’s indicative of an attorney general who has spent all of her time worrying about the people of this city. And so I know that the crosshairs the Trump administration is putting the attorney general through is because of the fact that she has had the audacity to stand up to him at a time when so many have bowed.”
“She has also made it clear to myself and many others that she has a full confidence in the legal team around her that will ensure that not only will she have the record of having won the case in the courtroom behind us, but winning this case as well,” Mamdani later added, referring to the New York City courthouse where President Donald Trump stood trial in the interim of his first and second presidency in New York v. Trump.
James is a longtime political foe of Trump’s, including campaigning for the attorney general job in 2018 by vowing to aggressively pursue legal charges against Trump if elected.
Her office filed 100 legal challenges against the first Trump administration and said after his second presidential win in 2024 that she would continue challenging him in the courts to “defend the rights of New Yorkers and the rule of law.”
James’ office also launched the New York civil fraud case against Trump and the Trump Organization over allegations of faulty business practices, winning a nearly $500 million judgment in 2024.
Mamdani continued that the indictment is a “shameless act of political retribution” at the hands of Trump against James.
“What Donald Trump has sought to do with taking over the federal government is to advance his own greed and his own agenda,” he said. “And we are now watching, as in the pursuit of that advancement, he lays waste to our democracy. This is a blatant miscarriage of justice. This is a shameless act of political retribution.”
“Instead of prosecuting Tish James for doing her job, Donald Trump should be doing his. Because Donald Trump ran for president on three promises: to carry out mass deportation, to punish his political enemies and to ease the cost-of-living crisis,” he said, claiming Trump is “fundamentally incapable of delivering on” the third promise.
He vowed to defend James amid her legal troubles while slamming Trump’s “authoritarian administration.”
“This indictment is instructive in two clear ways,” he said. “The first, in its example of an authoritarian administration that is looking to punish those for whom their only crime is holding Donald Trump to the same laws that every American should be held to. And the second is what it asks of each of us. Will we sit idly by as an authoritarian president like Donald Trump attacks the very fabric of this democracy?”
NEW YORK AG LETITIA JAMES’ INDICTMENT SPARKS SHARP PARTISAN DIVIDE
Pulte’s criminal referral letter in April pointed to a Norfolk, Virginia, home James purchased in 2023, which she identified on mortgage documents and a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac form as a property that would serve as her primary residence.
James is legally required to live in New York as a statewide elected official in that state.
The criminal referral also cited past reported issues with James’ properties, including a 2001 purchase of a Brooklyn, New York, property. The certificate of occupancy lists the property as a five-unit residence, while James’ mortgages list the property as four units, which could affect mortgage agreements.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and James’ office for comment Friday afternoon and has not yet received any responses.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
