As New York Attorney General Letitia James pled not guilty on Friday to mortgage fraud allegations, MSNBC legal analyst Charles Coleman Jr. highlighted the network’s glaring double standards on the situation James finds herself in compared to what she put President Trump through.
Jansing led Coleman with the idea that if taken to its logical conclusion, it would result in no public official ever being held legally accountable for anything, “So, in the meantime, what is the real-world impact of this, Charles, on Tish James? I know you said she absolutely doesn't have any fear. I worked in Albany, New York, for 20 years. I spent some time in the AG's offices over the years, and they seem pretty busy to me. They had a pretty full workload. There's money involved. There's time, there's emotion involved. Can you just address that? And the whole idea of upending people's lives?”
As MSNBC shifted from “nobody’s above the law” to “just think about the defendant’s personal life,” Coleman added, “Well, I think that speaks to what Peter was talking about and the fact that it's very obvious that Donald Trump is aware that the process of litigation and the process of prosecution in many respects can be the punishment. And that extends to the DOJ and Halligan's responsibility to sort of follow those marching orders, as it were, that we have seen very publicly displayed by Donald Trump. I want to be clear about, as it relates to his political enemies, Letitia James being one of them.”
Showing off his own blindness, Coleman continued, “But I understand and believe that Letitia James knows that she has a job to do, that she was duly elected to do on behalf of the citizens of New York, that she will continue to do so despite having this matter sort of hanging over her head and having to deal with it.”
James was elected because she ran on the platform of going after a specific person: Donald Trump. However, now that James’s standards have boomeranged against her, Coleman claimed this case is about so much more than whether or not James committed mortgage fraud:
What I will say is that I think if you look at her remarks, Chris, if you look at the way that she's carried herself since the announcement of this indictment, in the two public statements that she's made, she's demonstrated an understanding that this case represents for her and for so many other people, something a lot bigger than what we're talking about on paper.
Coleman then repeated himself as he addressed Jansing’s original question, such as it was:
And I think that because of that responsibility and understanding that there is a sense that she's standing up to something that's a lot larger than just where she sits, that's actually fueling her and propelling her with a different level of energy and a different level of purpose in this moment. So, I do think that it's something that could actually backfire in terms of something that could be a burden, could ultimately be a boost.
A jury of James’s peers will now decide if she is guilty or not. If that standard was good enough for the media when it came to Trump, then it should be good enough for them when it comes to James.
Here is a transcript for the October 24 show:
MSNBC Chris Jansing Reports
10/24/2025
12:14 PM ET
CHRIS JANSING: So, in the meantime, what is the real-world impact of this, Charles, on Tish James? I know you said she absolutely doesn't have any fear. I worked in Albany, New York, for 20 years. I spent some time in the AG's offices over the years, and they seem pretty busy to me. They had a pretty full workload. There's money involved. There's time, there's emotion involved. Can you just address that? And the whole idea of upending people's lives?
CHARLES COLEMAN JR.: Well, I think that speaks to what Peter was talking about and the fact that it's very obvious that Donald Trump is aware that the process of litigation and the process of prosecution in many respects can be the punishment. And that extends to the DOJ and Halligan's responsibility to sort of follow those marching orders, as it were, that we have seen very publicly displayed by Donald Trump. I want to be clear about, as it relates to his political enemies, Letitia James being one of them.
The practical impact of that is Letitia James knows that she has a job to do as the attorney general of the state of New York, and I assume and believe that she will continue to do it to the best of her ability. Of course, as all of us, we will have distractions that take us away from what it is that we have to do. But I understand and believe that Letitia James knows that she has a job to do, that she was duly elected to do on behalf of the citizens of New York, that she will continue to do so despite having this matter sort of hanging over her head and having to deal with it.
What I will say is that I think if you look at her remarks, Chris, if you look at the way that she's carried herself since the announcement of this indictment, in the two public statements that she's made, she's demonstrated an understanding that this case represents for her and for so many other people, something a lot bigger than what we're talking about on paper.
And I think that because of that responsibility and understanding that there is a sense that she's standing up to something that's a lot larger than just where she sits, that's actually fueling her and propelling her with a different level of energy and a different level of purpose in this moment. So, I do think that it's something that could actually backfire in terms of something that could be a burden, could ultimately be a boost.
