Did Letitia James target Donald Trump for partisan reasons in 2021, and did Donald Trump target Letitia James for partisan reasons in 2025?
Executive summary
Letitia James opened a long-running civil probe of Trump’s business starting in 2019 and litigated through 2021–2024 on grounds that courts later found credible, but public statements she made during her 2018–2021 rise invited allegations of partisan motive [1] [2]. Conversely, the record from 2025 shows President Trump and his allies actively pressed the Justice Department to pursue criminal charges against James, installed prosecutors with ties to him, and repeatedly sought indictments that grand juries ultimately refused — conduct that, by multiple news accounts, looks like partisan targeting [3] [4] [5].
1. Did Letitia James target Donald Trump for partisan reasons in 2021? — The record shows intent to investigate but not definitive proof of partisan-only motive
Letitia James began investigating the Trump Organization in early 2019 and pursued subpoenas and litigation through 2021 and beyond, culminating in a civil fraud case in which judges found persistent misrepresentations in Trump’s financial statements and awarded relief against him [1] [6]. She had, while running for attorney general, signaled an intention to take on Trump and told voters she would pursue wrongdoing she believed he committed, a campaign stance repeatedly cited by critics as evidence of partisan intent [2] [7]. Trump and his lawyers described James’s actions as “guided solely by political animus” and sued to block the investigation in late 2021, an argument federal courts did not accept at that time and which was dismissed in federal court [1]. Supporters and James herself point to the two-year investigative record, court rulings that upheld key findings, and the factual basis of subpoenas as evidence the work was law‑enforcement, not pure politics [8] [6]. Reporting shows both facts: James campaigned on targeting Trump — a political promise that fuels reasonable claims of partisan motive — and her office produced a multi-year investigation that judges found persuasive in the civil context [2] [1]. Available sources do not prove she acted solely for partisan reasons in 2021; they establish a mix of political rhetoric and litigated facts [2] [1].
2. Did Donald Trump target Letitia James for partisan reasons in 2025? — The evidence indicates active, administration-level pressure to pursue prosecutions
Beginning in 2025, the Trump administration moved to prosecute James on mortgage- and bank‑fraud-related charges, a campaign that included replacing veteran prosecutors who declined to bring charges, installing a former Trump personal lawyer as an interim U.S. attorney, and public calls from the president for legal action against James — steps multiple outlets described as retaliation or a political vendetta [3] [9] [4]. Several news organizations reported that career prosecutors did not believe the evidence warranted charges, that prosecutors were pushed aside, and that grand juries twice refused to re‑indict James after a judge voided an initial indictment on procedural grounds — facts widely reported as indicating the prosecutions were politically driven [5] [10] [11]. James and her legal team described the moves as vindictive, arguing the investigations were retaliation for her earlier civil actions against Trump [4] [12]. The consensus across Reuters, AP, NBC, The Guardian and others is that the Justice Department’s repeated, high-profile attempts — and the administrative reshuffling that accompanied them — are consistent with partisan targeting coming from the White House and its chosen prosecutors [5] [4] [12].
3. Weighing competing narratives — courts, grand juries and political context matter
Courts sustained major civil findings against Trump and his companies, which lends institutional weight to James’s probe as law enforcement work rather than pure political theater [6]. At the same time, James’s earlier campaign rhetoric promising to pursue Trump and public positioning as his antagonist gave opponents an ammunition to allege partisanship [2] [7]. In 2025 the administration’s personnel moves, firing of a U.S. attorney and installation of a Trump ally who forwarded charges, followed by grand juries’ refusals to indict, squarely support the view that Trump and his allies pursued James for partisan reasons — though courts and juries ultimately blocked or rejected those efforts on procedural and evidentiary grounds [3] [10] [5].
4. Bottom line
The evidence does not prove that Letitia James acted solely from partisan animus in 2021: she campaigned on holding Trump to account and ran a years‑long investigation that produced court‑upheld findings [2] [6]. By contrast, in 2025 the record in multiple major outlets documents a concerted, administration‑led push to criminally pursue James that involved replacing prosecutors and repeatedly attempting indictments that grand juries declined to sustain — conduct consistent with partisan targeting by Trump and his allies [3] [4] [5].