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After being arraigned at a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty on Friday morning to two charges.
Friday’s plea follows James’s indictment in early October in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. She faces one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution when she purchased a Virginia home five years ago.
The judge set a Jan. 26, 2026, trial date during Friday’s hearing.
James’s indictment stemmed from a criminal referral in April from Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. Following Pulte’s referral, the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a probe.
The DOJ alleges that James misrepresented her Virginia home as a second residence to secure a lower mortgage rate while collecting rental income, saving more than $17,000 compared with an investment property loan.
According to an ABC News report, James bought the $137,000 home in 2020 for her great-niece to live in rent-free, reported $1,350 as utility reimbursements, and made a 20% down payment — more than the typical 10% for a second home. If convicted, she faces up to 30 years in prison and $1 million in fines per count.
The Wall Street Journal reported that “a person familiar with the property said James bought it as a family home and allowed her grandniece to live there with her children as she sought stability after a troubled time in her life. There was never a rental or timesharing agreement with the property … and James occasionally stayed at the home.”
James, a Democrat in her second term, denies any wrongdoing, saying that any loan paperwork errors were corrected. She called the case politically motivated after her office’s successful fraud suit against President Donald Trump.
The DOJ told HousingWire it had no comment on the matter. James’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
