New York City mayoral candidate Mamdani defends NY AG Letitia James after he is indicted
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Socialist candidate for mayor of New York City Zahran Mamdani Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James has defended herself after being indicted by a grand jury on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, calling it a “brazen act of political retaliation” against the Trump administration.
“This is not just an attack on Attorney General Tish James,” Mamdani said Friday during a news conference with local leaders in New York who spoke in James’ defense. “This is an attack on our city. Each of us represents different parts of the same city, and we speak with one voice today.”
A Virginia grand jury indicted James on Thursday months after federal housing finance director Bill Bolte said in a criminal referral to the Justice Department in April that James falsified mortgage records to obtain more favorable loans.
Mamdani — the left-wing candidate who has championed and supported communist principles, including a call to seize “the means of production” — said he spoke with James after she was indicted on Thursday, and expressed confidence in her winning the case against her.
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A grand jury in Virginia indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on October 9, 2025, on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“She said to me last night: ‘Don’t worry about me,’” he said. “This shows that the district attorney spent all her time worrying about the people of this city. And so I know that the target that the Trump administration has for the district attorney is because of the fact that she had the audacity to stand up to him at a time when so many would have done so.” bent.”
Mamdani later added, “She has also made clear to myself and many others that she has complete confidence in the legal team around her that will ensure that she will not only have a case-winning record in the courtroom behind us, but that she will win this case as well,” referring to the New York City courthouse where President Donald Trump stood on trial in the interim between his first and second presidencies in New York v. Trump.
James is a longtime political opponent of Trump, including campaigning for attorney general 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 victory in 2024 that it would continue to challenge him in the courts “to defend the rights of New Yorkers and the rule of law.”
James’ office also launched a civil fraud case in New York against Trump and the Trump Organization over allegations of wrongful business practices, winning a nearly $500 million judgment in 2024.
Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zahran Mamdani has vowed to defend New York Attorney General Letitia James amid legal troubles, while criticizing Trump’s “tyrannical administration.” (Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Mamdani continued that the indictment is a “brazen act of political retaliation” by Trump against James.
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“What Donald Trump sought to do by taking over the federal government was to advance his greed and his own agenda,” he said. “And now we watch as he, in his pursuit of this progress, trashes our democracy. This is a blatant miscarriage of justice. This is a shameless act of political revenge.”
“Instead of prosecuting Tish James for doing her job, Donald Trump should be doing his job. Because Donald Trump ran for president on three promises: to carry out mass deportations, to punish his political enemies, and to ease the cost of living crisis,” he said, claiming that Trump “Fundamentally unable to fulfill the third promise.
State Attorney General Letitia James is seen during a public safety announcement to prevent gun violence at City Hall. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
He vowed to defend James amid the legal troubles while criticizing the “tyrannical Trump administration.”
“This indictment is useful in two obvious ways,” he said. “The first, in the example of an authoritarian administration looking to punish those whose only crime is to subject Donald Trump to the same laws to which every American must be subject. The second is what is being asked of every one of us. Will we sit idly by while an authoritarian president like Donald Trump attacks the fabric of this democracy?”
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Bolte’s April criminal referral letter referenced a home James purchased in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2023, which she identified in mortgage documents and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac forms as a property that would serve as her primary residence.
New York City mayoral candidate Zahran Mamdani defended New York Attorney General Letitia James during a press conference on October 10, 2025, after James was indicted by a Virginia grand jury. (Charlie Tripalo/AFP via Getty Images)
James is legally required to live in New York as a state elected official in that state.
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The criminal referral also cited previously reported issues with James’ property, including the purchase of a property in Brooklyn, New York in 2001. The certificate of occupancy lists the property as a five-unit dwelling, while James’ mortgages list the property as four units, which could impact the 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.