Letitia James' grand niece testified to a different grand jury that she lived in the lawsuit's disputed house rent-free

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Anna Bower @AnnaBower
NYT reports that Letitia James’s great niece lives in the home that is the subject of the indictment.

The niece reportedly testified before a *different* grand jury, telling them that she had lived there for many years without paying rent. James visits regularly.

___In the indictment, the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, accuses Ms. James of having misrepresented the purpose of the house when she purchased it in August 2020 for $137,000. The indictment says that while Ms. James indicated to her mortgage broker that she expected to use the house as a second home, she had instead used it as a “rental investment property, renting the property to a family.”

But in June, Ms. Thompson testified to a grand jury in Norfolk that she had lived in the house for years and that she did not pay rent, a person familiar with her testimony said. She was not asked to testify again, and the grand jury that voted to indict Ms. James was not seated in Norfolk, but in Alexandria.

Ms. Thompson and Ms. James’s yearslong use of the house and Ms. Thompson’s testimony to the grand jury — neither of which has been previously reported — illuminate the straightforward factual dispute that will animate the case. Real estate and legal experts said that it would be difficult to assess the strength of Ms. Halligan’s case until more facts were presented in court.

But the burden of proof is high. If the case makes it to trial, the charges, one of bank fraud and one of false statements to a financial institution, will require prosecutors to convince a jury that Ms. James intentionally misled the mortgage broker, OVM Financial, and First Savings Bank, which, according to the indictment, acquired the loan in 2021.

Ms. Thompson’s testimony that she has lived in the house rent-free — Ms. James pays even for basic upkeep, the people said — could make it difficult for prosecutors to convince a jury that the house was meant to be used as a rental investment property.

report: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/us/politics/letitia-james-indictment-house.html