Thread by @lawofruby

NEW: In order to prove vindictive prosecution, a defendant has to show they have been charged due to a genuine animus toward them on account of their exercise of constitutional or statutory rights. That's usually a very tough road to hoe. 1/

Enter Tish James (and her legal team, led by Abbe Lowell). Their brief tonight cites to an Exhibit A, a 112-page compilation of 360 of Trump's public statements dating back to the day after she opened her investigation of the Trump Org and him. 2/

Brief: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

That exhibit reflects a LOT of work but everything in it was already public. What I don't recall seeing before is Exhibit G, an August 2025 letter to Lowell from DOJ's "special attorney for mortgage fraud" Ed Martin. 3/

In that letter, Martin urges James to resign--and suggests her doing so would be interpreted by him as "an act of good faith" that would give New Yorkers "more peace than proceeding." 4/

Lowell argues in his brief that "[t]he reference to 'proceeding' can only have meant going forward with his investigation and criminal prosecution." 5/

He further contends that the letter does not conceal Martin's "plain intention: resign from office or face criminal prosecution—all this despite DOJ’s firm policies against using investigations and prosecutorial power for achieving political ends such as forcing a public official to resign." 6/

The brief continues to trace public statements by Trump and DOJ leaders and public reports of political interference with prosecutors through the James indictment and beyond. Those first 20 pages pack a punch. 7/

And they lead Lowell and team to this: "Prosecutors seldom provide defendants with a 'smoking gun' that spells out their improper motivations. But here, the Executive has shouted six years of direct evidence of genuine animus through a megaphone." 8/

Separately, James is moving to dismiss the indictment against her for selective prosecution, which is an argument that similarly situated people in similar circumstances were not prosecuted. 9/

Who are those similarly situated people? Prominent GOP officials who each have allegedly obtained primary residence mortgages on multiple properties: TX AG Ken Paxton, Sen. Roger Wicker, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for starters. 10/