A federal grand jury in Virginia has again declined to charge New York Attorney General Letitia James, derailing another effort by the Trump administration to pursue a criminal case against one of the president's political adversaries. Alexandria jurors on Thursday rejected prosecutors' push to reindict James, the New York Times reports, one week after a separate grand jury turned down a similar request. The repeated refusals underscore the Justice Department's unusual decision to present essentially the same case to multiple grand juries after prior setbacks, a tactic legal experts said is rare but not prohibited.
Bruce Green, a legal ethics professor at Fordham University, said there is no constitutional barrier to representing a case, though he noted that most prosecutors "would take a hint" after one or two failed attempts. And a judge might not like the multiple attempts. Abbe Lowell, an attorney for James, said the second rejection "makes even clearer that this case should never have seen the light of day," calling the matter "a stain on this department's reputation." James was indicted in October on bank fraud and related charges tied to a Virginia mortgage, a case thrown out by a judge last month.
Federal grand juries rarely reject a request to indict, NBC News points out, because the system favors prosecutors. They need just 12 of the at least 16 grand jurors to agree the case meets the probable cause threshold, a standard far below the "beyond a reasonable doubt" level needed for a jury to convict at trial. Federal prosecutors are supposed to pursue a case only if it's likely to result in conviction, under Justice Department practices.
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