A grand jury declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, 10 days after a federal judge threw out the initial charges against her, according to a person familiar with the development Thursday.

Another source familiar with the situation said there should be no premature celebration, because the Justice Department could try to seek the indictment a third time.

  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    37·
    10 hours ago

    For context on the remarkableness of this outcome…

    Solomon “Sol” Wachtler (born April 29, 1930) is an American former jurist, Republican politician, attorney, and author from the state of New York. He served as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1992. Wachtler’s most famous quote, made shortly after his appointment as Chief Judge, is that district attorneys could get grand juries to “indict a ham sandwich”.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Wachtler

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      8 hours ago

      Also a good reminder that this Justice Department failed to indict the guy that threw a sandwich at ICE twice, then reduced the charges to a misdemeanor to bypass the grand jury, and still failed to get a conviction.

      Normally federal charges aren’t brought unless there’s a strong case. The Federal conviction rate is usually over 90% because they don’t bother going after things they probably won’t win. They seem to have thrown that out the window in their haste to target political enemies. Turning the entire department into a laughing stock for anyone paying attention.