May 8 (Reuters) - The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into mortgage fraud allegations against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who President Donald Trump has publicly targeted because she pursued legal action against him.
James has joined attorneys general from other states in challenging Trump's second-term agenda. After Trump's first term in office, she brought a civil fraud lawsuit against him that resulted in millions of dollars of penalties.
Trump has called for the prosecution of James and New York State Justice Arthur Engoron, the judge who oversaw that case.
Last month, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, a Trump appointee, sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department alleging James “falsified records” to obtain favorable loans on a home she purchased in 2023 in Virginia and Brooklyn, the New York Post reported.
The investigation is being handled by the FBI's Albany office, the Times Union newspaper reported, citing law enforcement sources familiar with the matter.
James has denied Trump's allegations.
Representatives of James' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Department of Justice declined to comment. Spokespeople for the FBI and its Albany office could not be immediately reached.
James brought a lawsuit in 2022 that accused Trump and his family businesses of overstating his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion a year over a decade to fool bankers into giving him better loan terms. That lawsuit led to Trump being ordered in February 2024 to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to dupe lenders.
James has also joined other Democratic attorneys general in suing the Trump administration over its policies, including its orders on election overhauls, cuts to health and education, and other moves. She and other Democratic state attorneys general have also denounced Trump's orders targeting law firms and judges.
The U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of New York did not respond immediately to calls seeking comment.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones, Susan Heavey, Jonathan Allen, Sarah Lynch, Chris Prentice and Luc Cohen; Editing by David Gregorio)
((ryan.jones@thomsonreuters.com;))