DOJ official presses NY AG James to resign amid mortgage probe

A top Justice Department official overseeing investigations deemed politically charged pressed New York Attorney General Letitia James to resign, saying it would be “an act of good faith” four days after launching a mortgage-fraud probe into her finances. The move, followed by his appearance outside her Brooklyn home in a trench coat for a photo opportunity, has intensified concerns that DOJ powers could be deployed to advance partisan aims and to publicize investigations in ways that undermine professional norms.

The figure behind the action is Ed Martin, described as the director of the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group. He sent a letter to James’s lawyer stating that resigning would best serve the state and nation and that he would “take this as an act of good faith.” Four days earlier, Martin had opened a probe into alleged paperwork discrepancies related to James’s Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia residence, a case that has already drawn intense political attention because James has spent years suing then-President Donald Trump and his companies, including a multihundred-million-dollar civil judgment over asset valuations.