New York Attorney General Tish James pleaded not guilty Friday in a federal fraud case pursued by Donald Trump’s Justice Department, charges she said were produced by the president’s “vehicle of retribution.”

The attorney general entered a plea of not guilty to counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution regarding a mortgage loan before Federal Judge Jamar Walker in Norfolk, Virginia.

She is one in a growing list of the president’s political opponents recently targeted by the Justice Department. Trump has made no secret of his long-held desire to get revenge against New York’s top law enforcer for bringing and winning a sweeping civil fraud case against his real estate empire and to use the federal government’s prosecutorial powers to get payback against all of those he counts as enemies.

In live remarks outside the courthouse, James lambasted the prosecution before media and placard-bearing supporters who turned out in solidarity.

“This is not about me, this is about all of us, and about a justice system which has been weaponized. A justice system which has been used as a tool of revenge,” she said. “A justice system which, unfortunately, is being used as a vehicle of retribution. But my faith is strong.”

The charges against James, 67, not unsimilar to those she leveled against Trump, allege the attorney general lied to a mortgage lender in the process of purchasing a property in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020.

The Justice Department alleges she claimed in mortgage papers she would use the house as a secondary residence but rented it to a family, and thus could have netted $18,933 in ill-gotten gains over the life of the loan. Walker, a Biden appointee, set a tentative trial date for Jan. 26.

James, who was elected as New York’s first female attorney general in 2018, said she would not let the case distract her from her work. Her office is party to dozens of lawsuits pending against the Trump administration, as the president has mounted hostile offenses against Democrat-led states, cutting hundreds of millions in funding and deploying militarized agents to police protests and target undocumented immigrants.

“All throughout my public career, I’ve stood up for the rights of New Yorkers and Americans, and I will not be deterred,” James said. “I will not be distracted. I will do my job, each and every day, and that’s why I’m headed back to New York, because there’s work to be done standing up for the rule of law.”

A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.

Trump has for years railed against James. He personally directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to go after the AG and other opponents in a social media post several weeks ago, which the Wall Street Journal reported was supposed to be sent privately.

Less than a year before he was reelected as president in 2024, Trump spent months on trial in James’s civil fraud case against the Trump Organization. He was ultimately found liable, along with his sons and top company executives, for lying to banks and lenders about his net worth by billions of dollars for years.

A midlevel appeals court recently found the half-billion-dollar judgment issued against him excessive but upheld the fraud findings. The Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, is expected to hear arguments in the case ultimately.

Lindsey Halligan, 36, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and one of Trump’s former White House aides and personal lawyers, pursued the case against James shortly after Trump appointed her to the top job in September. She had no prior prosecutorial experience before presenting the case to a grand jury.

Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Siebert, quit after facing a pressure campaign to prosecute James and another longtime Trump target, former FBI Director James Comey, on charges Siebert believed were unsupported. Comey was indicted in September for allegedly lying to Congress, a case pursued by Halligan as well, and has similarly pleaded not guilty, calling the case bogus.

Last week, another of Trump’s foes, former national security adviser John Bolton, was indicted in Maryland on charges he denies related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

After the hearing, James’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, filed a motion to dismiss the case on the ground that it was brought as a result of Halligan’s “invalid and unlawful” appointment by Trump.

“Because there is no evidence that any other government attorney played a role in securing the indictment, the Court must dismiss this case for lack of jurisdiction if it determines that Ms. Halligan was not a proper representative of the United States,” the motion read.

Walker transferred the motion to South Carolina Federal Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, who is considering a twin motion by Comey challenging the legality of Halligan’s appointment.

In court papers Thursday, Lowell separately asked Walker to prohibit Justice Department officials from publicly discussing the case and from threatening James’s right to a fair trial.

The request came after Halligan texted a reporter for the Lawfare legal news nonprofit on the encrypted messaging app Signal to vent her displeasure with coverage of the investigation into the AG, highly unusual for a U.S. attorney. Prosecutors are legally prohibited from even acknowledging the existence of grand jury activity.

“You’re biased. Your reporting isn’t accurate. I’m the one handling the case and I’m telling you that. If you want to twist and torture the facts to fit your narrative, there’s nothing I can do. Waste to even give you a heads up,” Halligan wrote in one text published by Lawfare.

She added in another, “By the way — everything I ever sent you is off record. You’re not a journalist so it’s weird saying that but just letting you know.”

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