In a stormy chapter for the U.S. Department of Justice, a top federal prosecutor in Virginia is standing firm against mounting political pressure from President Donald Trump to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage fraud charges. Elizabeth Yusi, who leads major criminal prosecutions in the Norfolk office of the Eastern District of Virginia, has emerged as the central figure in a legal and political drama that has gripped Washington and cast a harsh spotlight on the independence of federal prosecutors.
According to multiple reports from MSNBC and Above the Law, Yusi has privately told colleagues she sees no probable cause to bring mortgage fraud charges against James, despite an intense campaign from Trump and his allies to pursue the case. Yusi’s decision comes at a time when the Justice Department, and particularly the Eastern District of Virginia, has become a battleground for the president’s efforts to prosecute perceived political enemies.
The saga began less than a month before October 7, 2025, when Erik Siebert, then-U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was forced out of his position after refusing to bring charges against James and other Trump adversaries. In his place, Trump installed Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide and insurance lawyer with no prosecutorial experience—an appointment widely criticized as unqualified by legal observers. Halligan wasted no time, quickly securing an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, another prominent Trump target, just as the statute of limitations was about to expire. Comey, for his part, has denied the allegations of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.
With Halligan now overseeing the office, Yusi has taken the lead on the James investigation. According to two sources who spoke to MSNBC, she has confided to coworkers that she sees no evidence James committed mortgage fraud. Yusi is reportedly prepared to present her findings to Halligan in the coming weeks, fully aware that her stance could cost her job. "Yusi plans to present her conclusion to the president’s new interim U.S. attorney, Lindsey Halligan, in the coming weeks," MSNBC reported.
The alleged mortgage fraud centers on a Norfolk, Virginia, home where James’s niece resides. The accusation, first raised in a May 2025 criminal referral by Bill Pulte—a Trump appointee and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency—claimed that James had falsely declared the house as her primary residence to secure a more favorable loan. However, James’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, has categorically denied the charge. Lowell provided evidence that, while a power-of-attorney form had mistakenly listed the house as a primary residence, James herself checked ‘no’ on the loan application when asked if the house was her primary home. Furthermore, as reported by MSNBC, James sent an email to her mortgage broker explicitly stating, "the house WILL NOT be my primary residence."
The pressure campaign from Trump has been anything but subtle. On October 4, 2025, he labeled James "SCUM" in a Truth Social post, demanding her removal as New York Attorney General and decrying what he called her "WITCH HUNT against President Donald J. Trump, and others." Just weeks earlier, on September 20, Trump publicly called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute James, Comey, and Senator Adam Schiff, writing, "We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!"
Inside the U.S. Attorney’s office, morale has been shaken. Career prosecutors are bracing for further dismissals, fearing that refusal to comply with political directives could lead to termination. Yusi, in particular, is seen as risking her career by refusing to pursue what many consider a baseless case. Randall Eliason, a former top public corruption prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, told MSNBC, “This supervisor clearly is doing the right and ethical thing by refusing to bend her legal conclusions to fit the president’s desire for political retribution.” But he also lamented, “It is tragic that career prosecutors are being forced to choose between honoring their oaths and risking their livelihood, forced out by the president’s politicization of the Justice Department.”
The turmoil in Virginia’s Eastern District has not been limited to the James case. On Friday, Michael Ben’Ary, the district’s top national security prosecutor, was fired after a Trump ally questioned his loyalty in a social media post. In a pointed letter, Ben’Ary accused the political leadership of the Department of Justice of abandoning their principles. “In recent months, the political leadership of the Department have violated these principles, jeopardizing our national security and making American citizens less safe,” he wrote, as cited by Above the Law.
The broader context for this clash is the ongoing legal feud between Trump and James. In 2024, James successfully sued Trump and the Trump Organization for a series of fraudulent business practices, securing a civil fraud verdict and a nearly $500 million penalty from a New York judge. While the appellate court later threw out the monetary penalty in August 2025, deeming it excessive, it upheld the finding of business fraud. Trump declared "total victory" after the appellate decision, while James vowed to appeal the reduction of the penalty.
For Trump and his supporters, the mortgage fraud allegation represents another front in a long-running battle against James, whom they view as a relentless adversary. For career prosecutors like Yusi and Ben’Ary, however, the episode has become a test of professional ethics and the rule of law in an era of deep political polarization. As Above the Law pointed out, “The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has become a flash point in the Trump administration's persecution of officials whom the president has deemed to be his foes.”
Meanwhile, the Justice Department and the White House have both declined to comment on the internal deliberations or the fate of prosecutors resisting political pressure. The legal community, for its part, is watching closely, with many warning that the ongoing politicization of the Justice Department threatens to erode public trust in the impartial administration of justice.
As the Eastern District of Virginia awaits Yusi’s formal presentation of her findings, the stakes could hardly be higher—for the prosecutors involved, for the Justice Department, and for the principle that American law enforcement should remain above the political fray.
