In October 2025, after President Trump publicly called for the prosecution of New York State Attorney General Letitia James, interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan filed charges against James for alleged mortgage fraud. James filed two motions to dismiss in response to the indictment.
One motion contended that the indictment is invalid because it was signed by an unlawfully appointed interim U.S. attorney. The other argued that the prosecution constitutes impermissible selective and vindictive enforcement motivated by James’s prior civil and political disputes with the president and his allies. That motion points to facts such as Trump’s repeated public attacks on James, the government’s decision not to pursue similar charges against other public figures, and the abrupt filing of the indictment following the appointment of a new interim U.S. attorney allegedly aligned with the president.
A bipartisan group of 58 former state attorneys general, represented by the Brennan Center for Justice, Democracy Defenders Fund, and the law firm Perry Law, filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting James’s argument that the charges against her were improperly motivated by political animus. The brief emphasizes that recognizing a vindictive prosecution claim in this context would not undermine legitimate prosecutorial discretion or invite frivolous motions. Rather, it warns that allowing politically motivated federal prosecutions of state attorneys general would have a chilling effect on the independence of state law enforcement officials and undermine the balance of federal and state authority essential to the rule of law.
The Eastern District of Virginia will hear oral arguments on James’s selective and vindictive prosecution motion on December 5.
