An Associated Press source says the Justice Department has twice failed to recharge New York Attorney General James

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A grand jury for the second time in a week declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday in another major blow to the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute the president’s political opponents.

The repeated failures were a stunning rebuke of prosecutors’ attempt to revive a criminal case that President Donald Trump had pressed them to bring, and signaled growing public wariness of the administration’s retaliation campaign.

He watches: Judge throws out cases of James Comey and Letitia James, rules prosecutor’s appointment illegal

A grand jury rejection is an unusual circumstance in any case, but it is particularly painful for a Justice Department that has been steadfast in its determination to retaliate against Trump enemies like James and former FBI Director James Comey. On separate occasions, citizens listened to the government’s evidence against James and then walked away disappointed, unwilling to believe what prosecutors tried to portray as a clear-cut criminal case.

A judge threw out the original indictments against James and Comey in November, ruling that the prosecutor who brought before the grand jury, Lindsey Halligan, had been illegally appointed as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Justice Department asked a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, to return the indictment on Thursday after a different grand jury in Norfolk last week declined to do so. The failure to obtain an indictment was confirmed by a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately clear on Thursday whether prosecutors would try for a third time to file a new indictment. James’s lawyer, who has denied any wrongdoing, said: “The unprecedented dismissal further demonstrates that this case should never have seen the light of day.”

“This case has truly been a stain on the reputation of this department and raises troubling questions about its integrity,” defense attorney Abby Lowell said in a statement. “Any further attempt to revive these discredited charges would be a mockery of our justice system.”

James, a Democrat who angered Trump after his first term with a lawsuit alleging he built his business empire on lies about his wealth, was initially charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a 2020 home purchase.

During the sale, she signed a standard document called a “second home tenant” in which she agreed to keep the property primarily for her “personal use and enjoyment for at least one year,” unless the lender agrees otherwise. Instead of using the home as a second residence, prosecutors say James rented it to a family of three, allowing her to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties.

The James and Comey cases were filed shortly after the administration appointed Halligan, a former Trump lawyer with no prior prosecutorial experience, as US attorney general amid public calls for the president to take action against his political opponents.

But U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissed the cases last month because of the unorthodox mechanism the Trump administration used to appoint Halligan. The judge dismissed these charges without prejudice, allowing the Department of Justice to try to bring charges again.

Halligan was appointed as a replacement for Eric Seibert, the bureau’s veteran prosecutor and interim U.S. attorney who resigned in September amid pressure from the Trump administration to bring charges against Comey and James. He stepped aside after Trump told reporters he wanted Seibert “out.”

James’ lawyers separately argued that the case was a retaliation prosecution brought to punish a Trump critic who spent years investigating and prosecuting the Republican president and won a stunning ruling in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. A higher court later overturned the fine, but both sides appealed the ruling.

Comey was separately charged with lying to Congress in 2020. Another federal judge has complicated the Justice Department’s efforts to obtain a new indictment against Comey, temporarily blocking prosecutors from accessing the computer files of Daniel Richman, a close friend of Comey and a Columbia University law professor whom prosecutors see as a key player in any potential case against the former FBI director.

Prosecutors moved Tuesday to overturn that order, calling Richman’s request for the return of his files a “strategic tool to obstruct the investigation and potential prosecution.” They said the judge overstepped her bounds when he ordered Richman’s property returned to him, and said the ruling hampered their ability to move forward with a case against Comey.

Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press correspondent Eric Tucker in Washington contributed.