A prosecutor inside New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office claims he was directed to find crimes involving President Donald Trump and Trump-linked organizations without a credible reason for targeting them. Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld made the explosive accusation in an agency-wide email sent Friday, Aug. 28. The message was reportedly deleted from state computer servers shortly after it reached employees, and Wiesenfeld was subsequently placed on administrative leave.
Wiesenfeld has worked in the attorney general’s Investor Protection Bureau and is based at the office’s headquarters in Manhattan’s financial district. He previously served as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn and had worked for James’ office for approximately two years. His email accused the office of starting with selected targets and then searching for crimes to pursue against them.
Wiesenfeld specifically named Investor Protection Bureau Chief Shamiso Maswoswe as the supervisor who allegedly gave him the directive. He wrote that Maswoswe had instructed him to target “Trump himself, Truth Social, Hewlett Packard (DOJ approved merger) … without having a credible reason for targeting this organizations and individuals [sic].” Truth Social is owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, while the Hewlett-Packard reference concerned Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.
As the Daily Caller reported, the email was sent across the attorney general’s office early Friday. It disappeared from more than 2,000 employee inboxes after being removed from the office’s servers. General Counsel Kumiki Gibson then sent a follow-up message describing the controversy as an “internal” matter and telling employees that no one in the office was “in danger.”
The original Times Union report said Wiesenfeld was placed on administrative leave with full pay. The prosecutor had handled significant litigation for the office, including April lawsuits accusing Coinbase Financial Markets, Inc. and Gemini, Titan LLC of illegally operating gambling through prediction-market platforms. Wiesenfeld could not be reached for comment after the email became public.
Wiesenfeld directly compared his allegations against James’ office with accusations that the Trump administration has used federal prosecutors against political opponents. “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,” he wrote. “I ask that you not serve as Tish’s personal attorneys by targeting her political enemies.”
The assistant attorney general then urged his colleagues to investigate evidence of criminal activity before selecting defendants. “Instead, I hope you choose to prosecute crimes and find the individuals accountable, rather than targeting individuals and then finding crimes,” he wrote. Wiesenfeld also accused James of spending “significant public taxpayer dollars to target convenient public enemies” while neglecting what he described as nonprofit homeless-shelter fraud and antisemitic crimes near synagogues.
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The accusation follows years of open hostility between James and Trump. After winning the 2018 election but before taking office, James discussed legislation intended to let New York prosecute conduct covered by a presidential pardon. “If, in fact, Vice President Pence were to pardon President Trump,” she said in December 2018, “clearly the office of attorney general — when the bill in Albany is passed — we will prosecute the president for crimes committed in New York state.” Her office later brought the civil business-fraud case that produced disgorgement awards totaling approximately $364 million before interest against Trump and other defendants, although a New York appellate court vacated those awards in August 2025 while otherwise affirming the judgment.
Alexis Richards, a spokesperson for James, described the dispute as a personnel matter and rejected Wiesenfeld’s accusation. “The office of the attorney general is committed to upholding New York’s laws and protecting the rights and freedoms of all New Yorkers, regardless of political beliefs,” Richards said. “We strongly reject any assertion to the contrary.”
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