NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s political weaponization czar sent a letter urging New York Attorney General Letitia James to resign from office “as an act of good faith” four days after starting his mortgage fraud investigation of her. Then he showed up outside her house.
Ed Martin, the director of the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group, told Ms. James’ lawyer on Aug. 12 that the Democrat would best serve the “good of the state and nation” by resigning and ending his probe into alleged paperwork discrepancies on her Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home.
“Her resignation from office would give the people of New York and America more peace than proceeding,” Mr. Martin wrote. “I would take this as an act of good faith.”
Then last Friday, Mr. Martin turned up outside Ms. James’ Brooklyn townhouse in a “Columbo”-esque trench coat, accompanied by an aide and New York Post journalists. He didn’t meet with Ms. James or go inside the building. A Post writer saw him tell a neighbor: “I’m just looking at houses, interesting houses. It’s an important house.”
Ms. James’ lawyer, Abbe Lowell, shot back on Monday, telling Mr. Martin in a letter that his blunt request for Ms. James’ resignation defied Justice Department standards and codes of professional responsibility and legal ethics.
The Justice Department “has firm policies against using investigations and against using prosecutorial power for achieving political ends,” Mr. Lowell wrote. “This is ever more the case when that demand is made to seek political revenge against a public official in the opposite party.”
“Let me be clear: that will not happen here,” Mr. Lowell added.
Mr. Lowell also blasted Mr. Martin’s visit to Mr. James’ home as a “truly bizarre, made-for-media stunt” and said it was “outside the bounds” of Justice Department rules. He included an image from security camera footage showing Mr. Martin, in his trench coat, posing for a photo in front of Ms. James’ townhouse. He said Mr. Martin looked as if he were on a “visit to a tourist attraction.”
The Associated Press obtained copies of both letters on Tuesday. A message seeking comment was left for Mr. Martin’s spokesperson. Ms. James’ office declined to comment.
The letters were the latest salvos in a monthslong drama involving Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign against Ms. James and others who’ve battled him in court and fought his policies.
Ms. James has sued the Republican president and his administration dozens of times and last year won a $454 million judgment against Mr. Trump and his companies in a lawsuit alleging he lied about the value of his assets on financial statements given to banks. An appeals court has yet to rule on Mr. Trump’s bid to overturn that verdict.
Earlier this month, the AP reported, the Justice Department subpoenaed Ms. James for records related to the civil fraud lawsuit and a lawsuit she filed against the National Rifle Association.
Mr. Martin’s investigation stems from a letter Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi in April asking her to investigate and consider prosecuting Ms. James, alleging she had “falsified bank documents and property records.”
Mr. Pulte, whose agency regulates mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cited media reports that Ms. James had falsely listed a Virginia home as her principal residence, and he suggested she may have been trying to avoid higher interest rates that often apply to second homes.
Records show Ms. James was listed as a co-borrower on a house her niece was buying in 2023. Mr. Lowell said records and correspondence easily disproved Mr. Pulte’s allegation.
While Ms. James signed a power-of-attorney form that, Mr. Lowell said, “mistakenly stated the property to be Ms. James’ principal residence,” she sent an email to her mortgage loan broker around the same time that made clear the property “WILL NOT be my primary residence.”
Mr. Pulte also accused Ms. James of lying in property records about the number of apartments in the Brooklyn townhouse she has owned since 2001.
A certificate of occupancy issued to a previous owner authorized up to five units in the building, where Ms. James lives and has rented out apartments. Other city records show the townhouse has four units, a number Ms. James has listed in building permit applications and mortgage documents.
On Aug. 8, Ms. Bondi appointed Mr. Martin, a former Republican political operative, to investigate. Mr. Martin, the current U.S. pardon attorney and former acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, is also investigating mortgage fraud allegations against Sen. Adam Schiff, California Democrat. Mr. Schiff obtained a lower interest rate on a home in Potomac, Maryland, by claiming it was his primary residence, though he has a primary residence in California, as required for the state’s U.S. senators.
Still, Mr. Schiff’s lawyer called the allegations “transparently false, stale, and long debunked.”
Mr. Lowell said it appears the working group Mr. Martin leads “is aptly named as it is ‘weaponizing’ [the Justice Department] to carry out the president’s and attorney general’s threats.”
