Top prosecutor expected to defy Trump on charging Dem: report

A federal prosecutor in Virginia reportedly told colleagues that she has not found probable cause to charge New York Attorney General Letitia James, despite President Donald Trump's call for her prosecution.

Two sources familiar with the matter told MSNBC that Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Yusi was expected to inform acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan of her conclusion in the coming weeks. Trump recently appointed Halligan to the post after Erik Siebert resigned while resisting pressure to charge James and former FBI Director James Comey, who was eventually indicted.

Trump has suggested that James committed mortgage fraud without citing any evidence.

"It looks to me like she's really guilty of something, but I really don't know," he told reporters late last month.

In a Truth Social post over the weekend, Trump referred to James as "SCUM" and accused her of conducting a "WITCH HUNT" by successfully convicting him of fraud in New York.

According to MSNBC, prosecutors in the Norfolk office of the Eastern District of Virginia, where Yusi works, were bracing for her firing.

"This supervisor clearly is doing the right and ethical thing by refusing to bend her legal conclusions to fit the president's desire for political retribution," former public corruption prosecutor Randall Eliason explained to the network.