BURSTFormer Vice President Harris denounced the indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday, pointing to a lack of evidence in the case.
“Today, I learned that the attorney general of New York just got indicted, even though the prosecutor who first looked at the case, who I’m told is a very conservative Republican, said there was not enough evidence,” Harris told a sold-out audience at the Warner Theatre during an event to promote her recently released memoir “107 Days.”
James was indicted by a federal grand jury on two charges stemming from the Trump administration's allegations that the top prosecutor engaged in mortgage fraud by claiming two primary residences. Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan — President Trump’s former personal lawyer and currently the only prosecutor on the docket — brought counts of bank fraud and false statements to a financial institution against the New York attorney general.
Halligan was sworn into office as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last month and has since brought cases against former FBI director James Comey and James — two of Trump’s political adversaries. Her predecessor, Erik Siebert, resigned Sept. 19 under an alleged threat of being fired by the Trump administration for refusing to pursue case against James.
Harris told her audience Thursday that Trump had put in place “an incompetent person to implement his vengeance agenda.”
“Think about it,” she said. “The attorney general of the state of New York has been indicted when a previous prosecutor who probably did not vote for her or me said there was not enough evidence.”
Legal experts, Democrats, and even some Republicans have raised concerns Trump may be using the Justice Department to prosecute former enemies. In a statement, James also criticized “the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”
“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost,” the Empire State prosecutor said.
James previously won a civil fraud case against Trump, several business partners and three of his children, in 2022, following a yearslong investigation into the Trump Organization. Trump was ordered to pay a fine of over $450 million, though the judgement was later tossed by a New York appeals court.
Harris’s remarks during her Thursday event were interrupted protestors of Israel’s two-year war with Hamas in Gaza. The confrontation comes after the two sides agreed to the first stages of a 20-point peace plan introduced late last month by Trump.
The encounter visibly frustrated Harris.
“You know what? I am not president of the United States,” she responded.