A prosecutor inside New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office has accused [1] supervisors of directing a politically motivated search for crimes involving President Donald Trump and organizations connected to him.
The accusation raises fresh questions about whether one of the nation’s most powerful state law offices was weaponized against a political opponent.
Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld reportedly sent an office-wide email describing instructions he received from his supervisor, Shamiso Maswoswe.
According to the Times Union, Wiesenfeld claimed he was told to “find crimes” involving Trump and his associates, despite lacking evidence that would justify such investigations.
Wiesenfeld, who worked in the Investor Protection Bureau, identified several alleged targets in his message.
He said the directive included “Trump himself, Truth Social, Hewlett Packard (DOJ-approved merger) … without having a credible reason for targeting these organizations and individuals.”
The email reportedly landed in the inboxes of more than 2,000 employees early Friday.
It then disappeared almost immediately, with the message deleted from office servers and removed from employee inboxes, according to people familiar with the extraordinary internal communication.
That rapid disappearance did little to contain the controversy.
Instead, Wiesenfeld sent another office-wide message challenging employees to consider whether partisan prosecution is acceptable simply because the target happens to be Trump, a favorite punching bag for Democrats and their institutional allies.
“If you believe Trump is using ( Department of Justice ) attorneys to prosecute his enemies and further his political interests, you should find it equally troubling that Tish (James) is doing exactly the same thing,” Wiesenfeld wrote, according to the Times Union.
He also warned his colleagues against behaving like private counsel for James and urged them to focus on actual criminal conduct.
“I ask that you not serve as Tish’s personal attorneys by targeting her political enemies. Instead, I hope you choose to prosecute crimes and find the individuals accountable, rather than targeting individuals and then finding crimes,” he wrote.
The distinction could hardly be more important.
Legitimate prosecutors begin with evidence of a crime and identify those responsible, while politically motivated operators begin with a person they despise and rummage around until they can manufacture a case.
Wiesenfeld reportedly stated that he had been instructed “to find and pursue crimes committed by specific individuals and organizations affiliated with Donald Trump,” according to the email obtained by the Times Union.
That allegation cuts directly against the principle that justice should be applied without fear, favor, or partisan direction.
James’ general counsel, Kumiki Gibson, later sent a message to employees describing the controversy as an “internal” matter.
Gibson also assured workers that no one in the office was “in danger,” according to three people familiar with the response.
The office response, as reported, did not publicly answer the central accusation.
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Americans deserve to know whether prosecutors were instructed to pursue Trump affiliated people and businesses first, then search for violations afterward, because that is political targeting dressed up in legal paperwork.
James has a long and highly public record of pursuing Trump.
She previously filed a civil fraud case seeking a judgment exceeding $400 million and moved toward seizing his assets, even though critics repeatedly noted that the financial institutions involved had not identified themselves as victims.
That history makes Wiesenfeld’s allegation especially explosive.
James campaigned as a determined Trump antagonist, and conservatives have long argued that her office approached him as a political target rather than as an ordinary citizen entitled to equal treatment under the law.
The source material also states that James was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on allegations of bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. Section 1344 and false statements to a financial institution under 18 U.S.C. Section 1014.
Those charges were later dismissed after a federal judge ruled that Interim United States Attorney Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully appointed.
The reported whistleblower email now adds another layer to the growing public distrust surrounding politicized prosecutions.
If Wiesenfeld’s account is accurate, New Yorkers are not looking at routine law enforcement, but at a troubling effort to pick targets based on politics and hunt for crimes afterward.
Congressional leaders and federal oversight officials should demand preservation of the deleted email, related communications, and any instructions involving Trump, Truth Social, Hewlett Packard, or associated individuals.
Deleting an explosive message does not delete the public interest, and it certainly does not erase the questions now hanging over James’ office.