Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman, Yvette D Clarke. Photo: CMC
NEW YORK, United States (CMC) – Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has described as a “sham” the indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James by the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia.
The indictment on Thursday charges James with one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution in connection with her purchase of a property in Norfolk, Virginia.
The charges come two weeks after President Donald Trump sought the successful indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.
“Let me be clear: this accusation, like the man who ordered it, is a sham,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Friday. “The American people know it. The US Attorney whom Donald Trump forced to resign for refusing to carry out this case knows it. Even the president’s hand-picked attorney leading this case knows it.
“But she, like every other instrument of the Trump regime, would rather abide by the president’s good graces than the United States Constitution,” added the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. “While I am utterly disturbed by this unjustifiable and baseless attack against Attorney General James, I am not at all surprised by it.
“This farce is nothing but the product of a years-long revenge crusade against the first woman who made Donald Trump face the consequences of his actions” Clarke added.
Continuing, she said, “Where so many have failed to hold him accountable for his lifetime of wrongdoings and lawlessness, James succeeded. To a convicted criminal like the President who is wholly consumed by his narcissism, ego, and limitless insecurities, that in his twisted thinking was a transgression that could not be forgiven or forgotten”.
According to Clarke, “In a vacuum, these charges and the punishment they carry are absurd and disturbing.
“In the context of the rampant criminality this administration excuses and embraces without a second thought, they become simply laughable. But we know that, historically, neither authoritarian regimes nor the small men atop them can tolerate those with a total devotion to justice”.
The congresswoman said that, “when the rule of law is all that stands in the way of the absolute control they crave, they cannot bear those whose very being gives it life.
“In Donald Trump’s America, this attack was always going to come. It will fail,” she stated, adding that, “When all these falsehoods fall apart in a court of law, Americans across the country will know the true character of Letitia James and salute her for her service to New York and the United States.”