A federal indictment for mortgage fraud might be the least of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ legal troubles.
Court records, the New York Post reported yesterday, divulged a much bigger one: The far-left, hate-Trump Democrat, who presents herself as the avatar of legal probity and virtue, is harboring a fugitive felon in her home in Norfolk, Virginia. That residence is the center of James’ mortgage fraud indictment.
The estimable individual is cop-assaulter Nakia Thompson, who is wanted in North Carolina for absconding from parole. Bonus fact: Thompson is Letitia James’ grandniece.
Harboring a fugitive can be a felony.
The legal trouble in which James is up to her elbows began when a federal grand jury indicted her for mortgage fraud. Specifically, the charges are bank fraud and making false statements about a property she owns in Norfolk, Virginia.
As The New American reported last week, James bought the home at 3121 Peronne Avenue for $137,000. Now, Zillow says, it’s worth more than $235,000.
On the mortgage documents for the home, James claimed it would be a second residence. Instead, she has used the home as a rental investment property. The lie, the indictment says, enabled James to get a more favorable interest rate on the mortgage and saved her almost $20,000.
On the Fannie Mae mortgage document dated August 17, 2020, the attorney general’s “signature appears at the bottom of a ‘second home rider’ … that explicitly lays out what the home can and cannot be used for,” the Post reported:
Among the covenants on the rider, which was obtained by The Post, were a requirement that James would “occupy and use” the property as a second home, and maintain “exclusive control” over its occupancy.
The signed document forbids any “shared ownership arrangement” requiring her to rent the property out or “give a management firm or any other person or entity any control over the occupancy or use of the Property,” and [affirms] that it would be “primarily” for her own personal use.
In other words, the mortgage agreement requires James to use the home.
As the federal indictment says, the rider “required JAMES, as the sole borrower to occupy and use the property as her secondary residence, and prohibited its use as a timesharing or other shared ownership arrangement or agreement that requires her either to rent the property or give any other person any control over the occupancy or use of the property.”
And James isn’t just renting the home to any old Tom, Dick, or Letitia.
The New York Times divulged on October 11 that Thompson told a grand jury she has lived in the home rent-free since 2020. Nor does she pay for upkeep. But the Times didn’t report Thompson’s past or that she was wanted in North Carolina for jumping parole, or why she has testified before a grand jury in Norfolk.
Thompson has twice been arrested for assaulting cops, the Post revealed, referencing court documents.
Citing documents first reported by the Daily Mail, the Post reported:
[The 36-year-old fugitive is] wanted for “absconding” from North Carolina after failing to complete the terms of her parole following a 2011 arrest in Winston-Salem, authorities said.
In that case, she was charged with malicious conduct by a prisoner, a felony, along with assault of a government official and resisting a public officer, court records show.
But Thompson has also been repeatedly arrested and cited in Virginia, since moving there — with charges including possession of burglary tools, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and grand larceny.
In 2020 — the same year she began living rent free, courtesy of New York’s attorney general — she pleaded guilty to felony petit and grand larceny. Prosecutors dropped the burglary-tools charge and “a handful of misdemeanor charges,” the Post reported.
As well, the Post revealed, Thompson is menace behind the wheel of a car:
She has also racked up nine separate vehicle offenses, including as recently as this summer.
In July, Thompson was hit with four citations in a single day, including driving 80 mph in a 55 zone and stopping her vehicle improperly on a highway.
The year before she was once again ticketed for going 80 in a 55, and got a summons for improper child restraint, for which she was later found guilty in absentia and fined $50.
The nut of the story is this: New York’s top law–enforcement official is harboring a dangerous fugitive in her home.
The mortgage on the home in Norfolk isn’t the only such legal document that James has falsified, federal officials allege.
A criminal referral from Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) chief William Pulte accused James of falsifying a mortgage application for another home in Norfolk, at 607 Sterling Street.
Pulte wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche:
In a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Form 3047 and in mortgage documents, she reaffirmed this would be her primary residence, despite being a statewide public office holder in the state of New York at that same time and primarily residing in the state of New York.
In fact, a building permit issued on her New York property on July 15, 2024 lists her New York property as the “JAMES RESIDENCE” and states “Remain Occupied.”
As well, Pulte alleged, James falsified documents related to a building in Brooklyn, New York. The five-unit building, James claimed in mortgage documents, had only four, all the better to receive more favorable mortgage terms.
And in 1983, “James and her father signed mortgage documents that stated that they were husband and wife in order to secure a home mortgage,” the FHFA chief alleged.