UNITED STATES-Caribbean American congresswoman condemns indictment of NY Attorney General.

NEW YORK, CMC – Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has described as a “sham” the indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James by the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The indictment on Thursday charges James with one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution in connection with her purchase of a property in Norfolk, Virginia.

The charges came two weeks after President Donald Trump sought the successful indictment of former FBI director James B. Comey.

“Let me be clear: this accusation, like the man who ordered it, is a sham,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Friday. “The American people know it. The US Attorney whom Donald Trump forced to resign for refusing to carry out this case knows it. Even the president’s hand-picked attorney leading this case knows it.

“But she, like every other instrument of the Trump regime, would rather abide by the president’s good graces than the United States Constitution,” added the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. “While I am utterly disturbed by this unjustifiable and baseless attack against Attorney General James, I am not at all surprised by it.

“This farce is nothing but the product of a years-long revenge crusade against the first woman who made Donald Trump face the consequences of his actions,” Clarke continued. “Where so many have failed to hold him accountable for his lifetime of wrongdoings and lawlessness, Tish (Letitia) James succeeded. To a convicted criminal like the president, who is wholly consumed by his narcissism, ego, and limitless insecurities, that, in his twisted thinking, was a transgression that could not be forgiven or forgotten.

“In a vacuum, these charges and the punishment they carry are absurd and disturbing,” she said. “In the context of the rampant criminality this administration excuses and embraces without a second thought, they become simply laughable. But we know that, historically, neither authoritarian regimes nor the small men atop them can tolerate those with a total devotion to justice.”

The congresswoman said that, “when the rule of law is all that stands in the way of the absolute control they crave, they cannot bear those whose very being gives it life.

“In Donald Trump’s America, this attack was always going to come. It will fail,” she said. “When all these falsehoods fall apart in a court of law, Americans across the country will know the true character of Letitia James and salute her for her service to New York and the United States.”

US House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries also described James’s indictment as “baseless, stating that it is “part of Donald Trump’s corrupt weaponization of the criminal justice system against anyone who has sought to hold him accountable.

“Attorney General James has courageously been at the forefront of successfully challenging the Trump administration’s lawless and deeply unpopular overreach,” said Jeffries, whose 8th Congressional District in New York encompasses parts of Brooklyn and Queens, with a heavy concentration of Caribbean immigrants.

He said, “James, at all times, followed the facts, applied the law, and was guided by the Constitution.

“The malicious prosecution of Attorney General James has no legitimate basis in law or fact, was brought by a corrupt political hack and will not survive scrutiny in a Court of Law,” Jeffries said.

James said her indictment is “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”

“He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General,” she said, describing the charges against her as “baseless”.

She said Trump’s “own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost.

“The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties,” she said. “His decision to fire a United States Attorney who refused to bring charges against me – and replace them with someone who is blindly loyal not to the law, but to the president – is antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country.

“This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice,” continued James, stating that she stands “strongly behind” her office’s litigation against the Trump Organization.

The New York Attorney General said her office had conducted a two-year investigation into the Trump Organization “based on the facts and evidence – not politics.”

She said that “judges have upheld the trial court’s finding that Donald Trump, his company, and his two sons are liable for fraud.

“I am a proud woman of faith, and I know that faith and fear cannot share the same space,” James said. “And so, today, I am not fearful; I am fearless, and as my faith teaches me, no weapon formed against me shall prosper.

“We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to protect New Yorkers and their rights fiercely,” she affirmed. “And I will continue to do my job.”