“Hello, this is Letitia James. Your number showed up on my Caller ID. Who is this?”
The voice was unmistakable. I knew it was her. I had just finished calling about twenty phone numbers of New York Attorney General Letitia James’s seven siblings, hoping to learn more about her niece, Shamice Thompson-Hairston, with whom James had jointly purchased a home in Norfolk, Virginia. I wanted to know which of Letitia’s seven siblings was Shamice’s parent.
Half of the numbers I called were bad, while the rest went to voicemail. I hadn’t left any messages. Yet suddenly, here was Letitia James herself on the line.
I decided to play it straight. “Yes, Ms. James, I’m a reporter working on an article about your family background. Can you tell me who is the father or mother of your niece, Shamice?”
James hesitated. “What is this for?”
“An article about your family background,” I repeated.
Her answer was abrupt: “No comment!” – and she hung up.
Checking my Caller ID, I saw the number was 212-416-8051. Upon a quick Google search, it turned out to be one of the main lines at the New York State Attorney General’s office.
My interest in Shamice Thompson-Hairston stemmed from Letitia James’s unusually large financial involvement in the lives of her niece and her two children. James had purchased two homes in Norfolk, Virginia for them, both with problematic legal issues as regards their mortgages.
In 2020, James purchased a property at 3121 Perone Avenue in Norfolk, Virginia, signing a document claiming it would serve as her primary or secondary residence, rather than a rental property, which allowed her to obtain a lower mortgage interest rate. That misrepresentation recently became part of the criminal indictment against James for mortgage and bank fraud, carrying a potential 30-year prison sentence. James was arraigned yesterday in Norfolk, Virginia in that case.
In 2023, James bought a home at 604 Sterling Avenue in Norfolk, Virginia with Shamice Thompson-Hairston as co-borrower. Per Sam Antar, Letitia qualified for the loan only after certifying in an updated application that it would be her “primary residence”, even though she lived in Brooklyn. I believe this could soon be the subject of a superseding indictment against James.
Speaking before the Association for a Better New York, James claimed her motives for the home purchases were purely familial, they were in order to provide a home for her niece Shamice’s “kids”.
But as I detailed in The Gateway Pundit in Crime Runs in the Family! Letitia James Buys Home for Niece’s Jailbird Adult Kids, James’s explanation, that she was a “good aunt” merely helping her niece and her children, was misleading.
The “children” whom James’s statement implied were minors, were both adult felons with long rap sheets, including Nakia Monique Thompson who today is a wanted fugitive with an active arrest warrant in North Carolina.
In fact, Nakia Monique Thompson has a criminal record spanning 20 years in the states of Virginia and North Carolina, and include multiple convictions for contributing to delinquency of a minor, abuse of child, possession of burglary tools, third degree larceny, assault and battery, trespassing, shoplifting, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, possession of marijuana, driving with a suspended license, and even malicious conduct while incarcerated.
Now, in a striking turn of events, Nikia Monique Thompson has again found herself before a judge in Norfolk, Virginia, the same city where Letitia James’s mortgage-fraud case is being heard.
According to The New York Post, Thompson was arraigned after allegedly threatening an elementary school assistant principal, shouting, “I’m still gonna punch you in the f—ing face, bald-headed bitch!” A protective order has since been issued, prohibiting her from contacting the victim or engaging in further acts of violence.
What makes the timing remarkable is that Thompson’s courtroom appearance coincided almost exactly with Letitia James’s own federal arraignment in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Prosecutors allege that James falsified mortgage documents related to the same property where Thompson lived, potentially making her felon grandniece a central witness in Letitia James’s mortgage and bank fraud case.
For a public official who built her brand as a champion of accountability, integrity, and “no one above the law,” this convergence of legal crises strikes at the heart of Letitia James’s credibility.
The image of New York’s top law-enforcement officer appearing in the court system where her grandniece faces charges and must testify against her is a tableau of political and personal irony.
For Thompson, the consequences could be severe. With her long criminal history and active probation violations, her latest outburst may result in enhanced penalties, and possible extradition to North Carolina where she is wanted under an Order for Arrest for absconding.
For Letitia James, meanwhile, the optics are devastating. The woman who ran on weaponizing the legal system against Donald Trump now stands accused of the very fraud she spent years prosecuting.
In a twist almost too cinematic to script, Letitia James and her grandniece Nikia Monique Thompson are both being arraigned at the same time. James’s fate may depend on Thompson’s testimony. The irony is profound.
New York state’s top prosecutor, who once vowed to hold others accountable for mortgage fraud which she said was a grave crime, now faces criminal charges of her own, while her own family’s entanglements in violence and fraud echo the very misconduct she pledged to eradicate.
If justice is blind, it must now peer unflinchingly at the James family for their crimes, where the once enforcer of New York justice and her accused grand niece with the long rap sheet share not just blood, but booking dates and the same prison cell.
Joel Gilbert is a Los Angeles-based film producer and president of Highway 61 Entertainment. He is the producer of the new film Roseanne Barr Is America. He is also the producer of: Dreams from My Real Father, The Trayvon Hoax, Trump: The Art of the Insult, and many other films on American politics and music icons. Gilbert is on Twitter: @JoelSGilbert.