A prosecutor inside New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office says his boss ordered him to hunt for crimes committed by President Trump and his allies, then punish him with paid leave when he spoke up.
Story Snapshot
- Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld emailed hundreds of colleagues claiming he was told to “find and pursue crimes” tied to Trump-linked people and groups.
- Wiesenfeld says his bureau chief, Shamiso Maswoswe, directed him to target Trump, Truth Social and Hewlett-Packard without a credible reason.
- James’s office placed Wiesenfeld on paid administrative leave and called the dispute a “personnel matter.”
- The claim lands amid years of legal back-and-forth between James and Trump-connected figures, adding fuel to both sides of the political divide.
The Email That Sparked the Uproar
Wiesenfeld works in the Investor Protection Bureau, a unit inside the attorney general’s office that handles financial crimes. Contemporaneous reporting says he sent an agency-wide email last Friday claiming his supervisor told him to “find and pursue crimes” involving people and companies connected to Trump. He reportedly warned against the reverse approach: picking targets first and searching for crimes to fit them.
The email named names. Wiesenfeld said Bureau Chief Shamiso Maswoswe pushed him to look into “Trump himself, Truth Social, Hewlett Packard” and other entities without what he called a credible reason for the scrutiny. That level of detail moves the claim beyond a vague complaint. It points to a specific person, a specific office, and specific targets, which is why it caught fire so fast among Trump supporters online.
James’s Office Fires Back
The attorney general’s office did not stay quiet for long. A spokesperson, Alexis Richards, told the Times Union the office “strongly” rejects Wiesenfeld’s accusations and called the whole thing “a personnel matter”. She added that the office is committed to enforcing New York law “regardless of political views.” Wiesenfeld was placed on paid administrative leave shortly after the email went out, and the message was later deleted from the office’s servers.
That denial matters. It is a direct, on-record rejection from the office itself, not just silence. Still, the office has not released any detailed account explaining what Wiesenfeld was actually assigned to do or why, leaving the public with two competing stories and little documentation to judge between them.
Part of a Longer Fight
This is not the first clash between James and Trump-world. The Justice Department sent subpoenas in 2025 seeking records about civil cases James filed against Trump and his family business, according to NBC News. Separately, a Trump housing official asked for a new criminal investigation into James earlier this year, which her lawyer called politically motivated, The Guardian reported. The new whistleblower claim drops into an already tense relationship.
BREAKING: A prosecutor inside Letitia James’ office just blew the whistle.
Assistant AG Daniel Wiesenfeld emailed thousands of NY AG staff and said his boss ordered him to “find crimes” committed by Trump, Truth Social, and Trump-linked companies — with ZERO credible evidence.… pic.twitter.com/oj21Ke16KW
— GRANDPA’s FREE ADVICE (@GOP_is_Gutless) August 31, 2026
Legal experts note that proving a prosecutor acted for political reasons, rather than legitimate law enforcement, is extremely hard. Courts generally give prosecutors wide discretion and assume good faith unless someone can show clear proof that similar cases involving other people were ignored. That high bar means accusations like Wiesenfeld’s often stall in a gray zone: serious enough to spark headlines, but short of the kind of hard evidence courts require to act.
Why It Resonates Beyond Party Lines
Whether or not Wiesenfeld’s claim holds up, it taps into a concern shared by conservatives and liberals alike: distrust that government offices use their power fairly instead of chasing political enemies. Conservatives see confirmation of long-held fears about “weaponized” law enforcement. Liberals wary of concentrated power should also want a clear, documented answer rather than a quiet personnel filing. Right now, the full email, any reply chain, and Maswoswe’s own account remain unseen by the public. Until those documents surface, this story stays a serious but unproven allegation, anchored to a named prosecutor, a named supervisor, and a swift, still-unexplained leave decision.
Sources:
townhall.com, nypost.com, business.cch.com, nbcnews.com
