If the state attorney general’s job were to stage nonstop flashy political stunts appealing purely to her party’s base, Letitia James would rank New York’s best ever, hands down.
Yet that’s not the job, and James’ myopic focus on politics ill-serves her actual duties and the people of New York State.
Consider: Since taking office, James has filed endless legal motions and issued literally hundreds of press releases focused exclusively on attacking President Donald Trump or blocking his agenda.
This month alone, her office sent out a dozen releases (three a week!) blasting Trump — on commercial driver’s licenses, gun rights, mail-in voting, Title X funds, immigration enforcement and more.
Most of her legal actions aim to weaponize the courts against Trump policies, while her core duties go neglected.
James doesn’t care, because even her many court losses let her grab headlines and score points with the left.
Nor does the AG limit herself to Trump’s politics: She actually tried to bankrupt him personally with her meritless civil case accusing him of defrauding banks; that led to an insane fine of nearly half a billion dollars from a blatantly biased judge — which was soon tossed by a higher court, making the whole thing a purely symbolic persecution that probably helped him win the 2024 race.
In more headline-hunting, she regularly joins other blue-state AGs in high-profile suits against things like the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, a pointless waste of her office’s resources.
Meanwhile, James has (purposely?) neglected her official duties, most notably, policing Medicaid fraud.
In July, the Empire Center ranked New York the second worst in the country for prosecuting Medicaid crooks, who swipe billions from taxpayers and weaken the system for those who truly need aid.
The state ranks dead last among all 50 states (and DC) for Medicaid fraud indictments and convictions per billion spent.
That’s outrageously irresponsible, when New York shells out $124 billion on the program.
Indeed, it’s prompted the feds, who pony up for a major share of Medicaid costs, to threaten to freeze funding for New York’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which James oversees.
Despite billions at stake and “millions of people expecting safe care for their families,” New York’s MFCU has been “ineffective in fighting criminal cases” involving Medicaid fraud, abuse or neglect, blasted Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Thomas March Bell.
She’s also been MIA when it comes to fighting crime, despite her role as the state’s top law-enforcement officer.
In 2022, the Detectives’ Endowment Association, which generally remains silent on AG candidates, urged voters to ditch James for failing to make “public safety a priority” — and for, instead, suing the NYPD for supposedly mishandling the Floyd riots.
And who can forget one of her most embarrassing moments — when she tried to horn in on City Councilman Chi Ossé theatrical bid to block an eviction he claimed stemmed from “deed theft”?
As Ossé was being arrested for the stunt, James’s office flatly denied “deed theft” sparked the eviction — only for her to reverse course just two days later, after sticking her finger in the political wind, to gaslight that deed theft was, in fact, involved (somehow).
She had it right the first time, of course. But for James, politics has always trumped the truth. And her obligations to New Yorkers.
It’s all worth remembering as she vies for a third term this November.
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