The Justice Department has issued subpoenas to New York Attorney General Letitia James as part of an expanded federal investigation into her office’s handling of high-profile cases against President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association.
According to a source familiar with the matter inside the Trump administration, one subpoena targets James’ civil fraud case against Trump, while another concerns her office’s probe into the NRA.
The investigations, according to CBS, are being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York. The subpoenas, first reported by The New York Times, signal that the Trump administration is continuing to investigate the president’s political adversaries.
James pursued Trump before his 2024 election victory, culminating in a landmark 2022 civil suit that resulted in a court ordering Trump and the Trump Organization to pay $354 million in fines — a figure that has grown with interest — and barring them from obtaining loans from New York financial institutions for three years.
The ruling also prohibited Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation. Additional penalties were imposed on his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., who hold executive roles in the company. Trump and the Trump Organization appealed more than a year ago, but a decision has yet to be issued.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the New York Attorney General’s office condemned the federal inquiry, saying, “Any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American. We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights.”
James’ attorney, Abbe Lowell, accused the Trump administration of “weaponizing the Department of Justice to try to punish an elected official for doing her job,” calling it “the most blatant and desperate example” of political retribution. He further described the move as “an attack on the rule of law and a dangerous escalation.”
“If prosecutors carry out this improper tactic and are genuinely interested in the truth, we are ready and waiting with the facts and the law,” Lowell said.
The Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York declined to comment.
In May, CBS News reported that James was also under federal investigation for alleged mortgage fraud in a separate FBI-led probe.
