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A veteran federal prosecutor in Virginia has informed her colleagues that she finds no basis there is legal grounds to pursue fraudulent mortgage charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The prosecutor, Elizabeth Yusi, who supervises high-profile investigations in the Norfolk office for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, intends to soon present her finding to Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally who was placed as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last month.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia also did not return a request for comment.

Major Clash Between Department of Justice and Former President

This case marks another notable confrontation between the Justice Department and Trump, who has in the past removed attorneys who declined to target his political enemies. Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience, was named to the role after requests by Trump after her preceding attorney concluded there was no probable cause to file criminal charges against James Comey, the previous FBI director.

Trump has openly called for the U.S. Attorney General to take legal action against James, who led a civil fraud case against the ex-president that resulted in a $500 million fine, though the judgment was later thrown out by a New York state appellate court.

Mortgage Fraud Accusations and Investigation

William Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency head and a strong Trump ally, made a allegation against James to the Justice Department in April, alleging she may have committed mortgage fraud. Pulte referenced mortgage documents related to a 2023 Norfolk, Virginia, home that James helped purchase for her niece, in which James seemed to state on a document that she planned to occupy the home as her main home. James was acting as the Attorney General of New York at the time.

Prosecutors assembled a grand jury in May to investigate the matter but struggled building a case against James, notwithstanding demands from Trump allies. Electronic correspondence from the time of the home purchase and further mortgage documents show James clearly indicating that she did not plan for the home to be her primary residence. This evidence poses a challenge for prosecutors to prove that James deliberately falsified on the mortgage documents.

Recent Shake-Up in Prosecutorial Office

Multiple prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have faced termination or stepped down in recent weeks as Trump has escalated pressure on the office to bring charges against Comey and James.

Erik Siebert, Halligan’s predecessor, stepped down on September 19 after facing pressure from Trump to file charges. Maya Song, a key deputy to Siebert, was also fired in late September. Michael Ben’Ary, a leading national security prosecutor in the office, was removed last week after false accusations from a pro-Trump media personality.

“The leadership is focused with penalizing the President’s perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security,” he stated in his final message to colleagues.

“Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be dependent on what someone in the Department of Justice encounters in their online content that day.”