In what appears to be the early stages of the FBI criminal investigation, prosecutors have impaneled a federal grand jury to hear evidence in the eastern district of Virginia after the head of the federal housing agency, William Pulte, last month made the referral to the justice department, the people said.
The investigation appears to be multipronged, the people said, with involvement from the FBI in New York in addition to Virginia. The investigation appears to have gathered pace only in recent weeks with news of the grand jury filtering through Trump’s orbit in the last few days of April.
The criminal referral rehashed claims touted online by Trump allies that James may have committed fraud by attesting in paperwork in 2023 that she would make a house in Norfolk, Virginia, which she was helping a relative to buy, as her principal residence while she was New York’s attorney general.
Whether the allegations are substantial enough to result in criminal charges remains unclear. But its existence, which has not been previously reported, regardless raises the legal stakes for James in what appears to be the first criminal inquiry into one of Trump’s foremost political adversaries.
This is Trump going after his enemies with made up crimes and zero evidence. This is what a dictator does.