A federal grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia, refused to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud on Thursday, sources said, rejecting the Department of Justice’s attempt to refile the case just ten days after a federal judge dismissed an earlier case based on the unlawful appointment of the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Federal prosecutors failed to convince a majority of grand jurors to approve charges that James misled a bank to obtain favorable terms on a home mortgage, according to sources.
The grand jury’s return of a “no true bill” in the case marked an extraordinary rebuke by average citizens of the Department of Justice’s attempt to bring charges against James, an adversary of President Donald Trump who has been the target of his repeated calls for prosecution.
A Justice Department representative declined to comment.
James, in a statement, said she was grateful to the members of the grand jury.
Coming to a Supreme Court near you…
There aren’t really prosecutorial appeals for grand jury “no true bill” decisions, so this won’t be going to the supremes at this stage. However, there’s also nothing to prevent the prosecutors from trying again in front of a new grand jury. In practice this is pretty uncommon, likely because the judges presiding over grand juries take a dim view of lawyers who waste the court’s time (much like any other judge).
A common reason to seek a new indictment would be if new evidence has come to light, and thus there are new facts for a new grand jury to weigh. I wouldn’t be surprised if these prosecutors try again, even though it’s a stupid move. Motiviations like “maintain credibility with my peers” and “don’t be an incompetent nincompoop” are clearly foreign to Trump’s DoJ.
On a related note, double jeopard prevents someone from being tried twice for the same crime, but an indictment isn’t a trial. A trial does not start until after a grand jury returns an indictment, so double jeopardy doesn’t apply here.
I just learned more about the law than all 8 years that I dated a lawyer… and I’m pretty stoked :-)
Trying again would be in character for this DOJ. They went before a grand jury three times to try to indict the guy who threw a sandwich at an ICE agent. After the third no-bill, they switched to charging him with misdemeanors, which don’t require going before a grand jury. (A regular jury tossed those charges at trial.)
I don’t think this kind of thing would go to the Supreme Court.
I defer to your opinion, but it was substantially a joke :-)
