A federal judge on Friday rejected an effort by New York Attorney General Letitia James to require prosecutors to document all their communications with reporters in her ongoing mortgage fraud case.
Judge Jamar Walker ruled against the motion submitted by defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who had filed the request last week following revelations that U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan exchanged encrypted Signal messages with a journalist about the case. “The defendant does not demonstrate that it is necessary for the Court to order the government to track communications with the media in any particular form,” Walker wrote in his decision. He added plainly, “The defendant’s request that the government be required to keep a communication log is DENIED.”
Walker acknowledged that Halligan’s Signal conversation with Lawfare senior editor Anna Bower earlier this month was “unusual,” though he stopped short of labeling it inappropriate, saying he would not comment “on whether they were improper in any sense, either legal or ethical.” Despite declining to impose a log, the judge emphasized that prosecutors must follow all court procedures.
In a related directive, Walker issued a “litigation hold preventing the deletion or destruction of any records or communications having to do with the investigation or prosecution of this case.” Halligan’s messages with the reporter were reportedly configured to vanish after eight hours, raising questions about transparency and evidence preservation.
The judge also declined to decide whether Halligan’s disputed message—which reportedly contradicted a New York Times story about testimony from James’ grandniece before a grand jury—should be treated as discoverable material. “[T]he Court is not persuaded that preservation of evidence related to the government’s communications requires such evidence be maintained in any particular form,” he wrote. “The defendant does not demonstrate that a communication log is necessary, so the Court will not order the government to maintain one.” He added a note of finality: “The Court trusts that counsel on both sides will comply with this Order without further handholding.”
Federal prosecutors, in turn, had urged Walker to issue a gag order against James, but he refused that request as well.
James entered a not guilty plea last week to charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. Prosecutors allege she secured a mortgage under false pretenses when she purchased a three-bedroom home on Peronne Avenue in Norfolk, Virginia, on August 17, 2020, for $109,600. The mortgage documents, they say, listed her as the “sole borrower to occupy and use the property,” which earned her about $19,000 in more favorable loan terms.
Authorities contend, however, that the property “was not occupied or used” by James, but “was instead used as a rental investment property” for her grandniece, Nakia Thompson. If convicted on both counts, James could face up to 60 years in prison and fines totaling as much as $2 million.
{Matzav.com}
If I would do the same exact shtick that Letitia did, the FBI would kick in my door at 3:00am and drag me out in front of my family and neighbors. But somehow, because she is a black and a female, she is automatically a “victim” and therefore above the law. There is a 2 tiered system in this country. The elites can do what they want, and the peasant taxpayers get beaten down every time.