Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld says his bureau chief handed him a directive that didn't name a crime, didn't reference a complaint, and didn't cite a single piece of evidence. It named a person. The directive told him to "find and pursue crimes committed by specific individuals and organizations affiliated with Donald Trump." Then the email containing that directive was deleted from the office servers.
Wiesenfeld — who served in the Investor Protection Bureau of the New York Office of the Attorney General — alleges that Bureau Chief Shamiso Maswoswe ordered him to target "Trump himself, Truth Social, Hewlett Packard (DOJ approved merger)… without having a credible reason."
Wiesenfeld raised the alarm internally. For his trouble, he was placed on paid administrative leave — which is what government offices do when they want someone quiet but can't legally fire them yet. Attorney General Letitia James' office responded to the allegations by calling it "a personnel matter," adding that "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."
Regardless of political beliefs. That's a fascinating phrase to deploy when the accusation is literally that your office selected investigative targets based on political beliefs.
Maswoswe's own background adds a layer worth noting. She previously served as a trial attorney in the DOJ's Public Integrity Section from January 2016 through December 2017, when she was terminated. In February 2021, she filed a discrimination lawsuit against the DOJ. That lawsuit resulted in a $795,000 settlement in 2023. By February 2022, she had joined James' office — and was apparently running a bureau that, according to Wiesenfeld, was directing staff to investigate political opponents without predicate.
The deleted email is the detail that elevates this from troubling to damning. Government communications are subject to retention requirements. Deleting an internal directive that ordered staff to target a specific political figure isn't a clerical oversight. It's the kind of thing that happens when someone realizes the quiet part got written down.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis didn't mince words: "This is more proof of the weaponization of the justice system by Letitia James."
James' office, of course, is no stranger to Trump-related legal action. Her office filed the civil fraud lawsuit against the Trump Organization in 2022, initially securing more than $450 million in penalties. An appeals court later voided the financial penalty while upholding liability — a partial win that James' team treated like a total victory lap anyway.
The standard defense here will be that Wiesenfeld is a disgruntled employee. That this is an internal grievance dressed up as a constitutional scandal. But disgruntled employees don't usually have deleted emails backing up their story. Disgruntled employees don't usually describe a directive that reads like opposition research with a government seal on it.
Every prosecutor's office in the country investigates people. That's the job. But there's a difference between following evidence to a subject and selecting a subject and going fishing for evidence. One is law enforcement. The other is what happens in countries where the attorney general reports to the party, not the public.