(DCNF)—CNN host Anderson Cooper stated on Thursday that Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James had always planned to politically target President Donald Trump.

A federal grand jury indicted James on Thursday on allegations of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution regarding a mortgage application for a property in Norfolk, Virginia. In response to the indictment, Cooper said on “Anderson Cooper 360” that James vowed to “sue” Trump after she had been elected in 2018.

“Jeff [Toobin], I mean, according to PolitiFact, the day after she was elected in 2018, Letitia James was asked by a community activist if she was gonna sue President Trump. And she said, ‘oh, we’re definitely gonna sue him. We’re gonna be a real pain in the ass. He’s gonna know my name personally.’ I mean, that’s not a great look for somebody who has just been elected, who has just been campaigning and hasn’t even looked, I guess, deeply at any evidence.”

Toobin, who once got caught masturbating during a Zoom call, said that attorneys general and district attorneys are politicians and make political statements. He also suggested that James is facing charges because she made those inappropriate statements about targeting Trump.

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Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan brought forth the two-count indictment, which relates to a $109,600 loan secured by James on Aug. 17, 2020, for a three bedroom house in Norfolk, Virginia. The loan required James “to occupy and use the property as her secondary residence” and “prohibited” her ability to use the property as a “timesharing or other shared ownership arrangement.”

The indictment alleges that the house was not occupied by James as a secondary residence and instead used as a rental investment property. The Federal Housing Agency (FHFA) referred James in April to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly falsifying mortgage documents.

Following the FHFA’s referral, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed special attorney Ed Martin to investigate the mortgage fraud allegations against James in August.

James sued Trump and the Trump Organization in September 2022 for alleged financial fraud to obtain favorable loans. Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million in penalties in a Feb. 16, 2024, ruling, which stood around $515 million with interest. An appeals court tossed the penalty after concluding that the amount was “excessive.”

The New York attorney general said the charges against her were “baseless” and a result of Trump’s “political retribution.”

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