Archive August 8, 2025

The United States Department of Justice has subpoenaed New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had successfully filed a civil lawsuit against US President Donald Trump for alleged fraud in his business dealings.

Friday’s subpoenas come as the department convenes a grand jury to investigate whether James, a Democrat, violated the civil rights of President Donald Trump and other Republican-affiliated entities.

Anonymous sources with knowledge of the subpoenas confirmed their existence to The Associated Press and other news agencies.

According to the media reports, the grand jury will not only probe whether Trump’s rights were violated by the fraud lawsuit, but the subpoenas will also seek information about a second lawsuit James launched against the National Rifle Association (NRA), an influential gun lobby group.

A spokesperson for James’s office did not confirm the subpoenas but rejected any wrongdoing.

“Any weaponisation of the justice system should disturb every American”, the statement said. “We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers ‘ rights”.

James’s personal lawyer, Abbe Lowell, also said in a statement that her legal team was “ready and waiting with the facts and the law”.

“Investigating the fraud case Attorney General James won against President Trump and his businesses has to be the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign”, Lowell said.

A history of in-court clashes

The reports on Friday revealing the subpoenas have fuelled criticism that Trump is increasingly weaponising the Justice Department to settle scores.

Trump faced numerous legal challenges, both civil and criminal, during his period out of the White House from January 2021 to January 2025. He is the first US president to not only face criminal charges but to be convicted.

James, meanwhile, was among the officials who spearheaded civil proceedings against him.

She took office in January 2019 and has since filed several lawsuits against Trump and his policies.

But one of the most high-profile has been the 2022 case in which she accused Trump of inflating the value of his assets — including his real estate properties and golf clubs — to defraud banks and lenders.

In February 2024, Trump and his sons were ordered to pay $454m in the case, though the president continues to appeal that ruling. Trump has argued his financial statements actually under-valued his assets.

Separately, James successfully filed a lawsuit against the NRA and its founder, Wayne LaPierre, for misusing millions in funding for the group. Trump maintains close ties to the anti-gun control lobby group.

Revenge on political adversaries?

For years, Trump has alleged that he is the subject of a political “witch hunt”.

Those who prosecuted him, he argues, have abused their office for political gain, in an alleged effort to dampen his popularity among voters.

Trump has expressed particular ire towards James, calling her a “horrible person” and a “total crook” in May.

That month, the Justice Department, under his authority, opened an investigation into James’s real estate holdings, alleging she misrepresented her property records to obtain more favourable loans.

Trump has also argued that statements James made on the campaign trail indicate her political bias against him.

While running for office in 2018, for instance, James called Trump “illegitimate”, “incompetent” and “ill-equipped to serve in the highest office of this land”.

Friday’s subpoenas come on the heels of other investigations that critics perceive as retribution from Trump against his political adversaries.

Just this week, the Department of Justice also announced it would open an investigation into members of the administration of former President Barack Obama, a longtime target of Trump’s criticisms.

The probe centres on intelligence community reports examining whether Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won.

The reports concluded that Russia sought to sway the election through disinformation, though no votes were tampered with. They also suggested that Russia favoured Trump over his Democratic rival, something Trump has since described as an effort to delegitimise his victory.

Trump has since accused Obama of “treason”, although no evidence has emerged of wrongdoing.

The Department of Justice has also recently sought to purge career employees who worked on two federal criminal cases filed against Trump after he left office in 2021.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States has confirmed that one of its most famous space explorers, Jim Lovell, has died at age 97.

In a statement on Friday, Transportation Secretary and NASA administrator Sean Duffy confirmed that Lovell passed away at his home in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Lovell is perhaps most famous for his 1968 voyage on the Apollo 8 space flight, which made history as the first voyage to take human beings past the Earth’s gravitational field and around the moon.

For that flight, which took more than six days to complete, Lovell served as command module pilot, alongside astronauts Frank Borman II and William Anders. They circled the moon 10 times before returning to Earth.

Lovell was the last surviving crew member from that flight.

He also was a key figure on the doomed 1970 Apollo 13 flight, which was meant to conduct the third lunar landing.

But the flight met disaster when its oxygen tank exploded in space, endangering all on board. It was unclear whether Lovell, the most experienced astronaut on the flight, and his two colleagues, John Swigert Jr and Fred Haise Jr, would return from the voyage alive.

As mission commander, however, Lovell helped steer their lunar module back to Earth in a death-defying splashdown. It was his last space flight, and he has been praised for his calm under pressure.

“Jim’s character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success,” Duffy said.

“From a pair of pioneering Gemini missions to the successes of Apollo, Jim helped our nation forge a historic path in space that carries us forward to upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.”

We are saddened by the passing of Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13 and a four-time spaceflight veteran.

Lovell’s life and work inspired millions. His courage under pressure helped forge our path to the Moon and beyond—a journey that continues today. https://t.co/AjT8qmxsZI pic.twitter.com/jBlxzgrmSk

Known by the nickname Smilin’ Jim, Lovell was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 25, 1928.

He began his aviation career in the 1950s as part of the US Navy, where he completed a four-year tour of duty as a test pilot in Maryland. During his naval service, he logged more than 7,000 hours of flying time.

Then, in 1962, he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut. His first space flight took place as part of the Gemini project, a series of flights designed to improve space travel in order to pave the way for the later Apollo moon missions.

At first, Lovell was a backup pilot for Gemini 4. But he got his break with the Gemini 7 mission in 1965, which was only the 12th crewed flight the US had sent to space by that point.

He was paired with Borman, his future Apollo 8 colleague, for that launch, and together, they made a rendezvous in space with Gemini 6 — a first-time feat for two crewed flights.

Lovell was also on the spacecraft for the final mission of the project, Gemini 12, which paired him with Buzz Aldrin, then a rookie.

With the Gemini missions complete, NASA turned its attention to putting a man on the moon.

Lovell and his colleagues on Apollo 8 helped make that possible, with NASA dubbing the circumnavigation “man’s maiden voyage to the moon”.

“We could actually see the Earth start to shrink,” Lovell would later tell the TV channel CSPAN. “It reminds me of being in a car, looking out the back window, going inside a tunnel and seeing the tunnel entrance shrink as you go farther into the tunnel. It was quite a sensation to think about.”

“You had to pinch yourself: Hey, we’re really going to the moon.”

In 1969, Apollo 11 would make good on the promise of Lovell’s mission, achieving the first successful moon landing of a crewed flight. Lovell’s former colleague Aldrin joined Neil Armstrong in being the first human beings to plant a foot on the moon.

Lovell was meant to land on the moon himself. He was 42 at the time of his flight with Apollo 13, which was likewise charged with completing a lunar landing.

But two days into the 10-day mission, the crew heard an explosion. “OK, Houston,” Lovell’s colleague Swigert radioed back to Earth, coining a famous phrase. “We’ve had a problem here.”

Lovell communicated that the spacecraft was “venting something out into” space. That turned out to be oxygen leaking out of an exploded tank. Another tank remained, but it was damaged, as were the fuel cells. That, in turn, risked leaving the astronauts without electricity.

The fate of the three astronauts on board the Apollo 13 mission, including Lovell, captured international attention.

The crew ultimately transformed their lunar module into a “lifeboat” and faced dangerous levels of carbon dioxide as they looped around the moon to boomerang back to Earth.

Lovell ultimately co-wrote a book about his experience, Lost Moon, and the American actor Tom Hanks played him in a 1995 film adaptation, called Apollo 13.

Lovell himself made a cameo appearance opposite Hanks.

During his final days, Lovell met with Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, who wrote about the meeting on social media.

“Yesterday, I was honored to meet one of my personal heroes, Navy Veteran and astronaut Jim Lovell,” Collins said. “Jim’s remarkable leadership during the historic Apollo 13 mission is an inspiration to all!”

Upon learning of Lovell’s death, Collins joined in the outpouring of condolences: “Astronaut and Navy Veteran Jim Lovell was a legend, plain and simple.”