Republican attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddydropped a withering 52-count “public indictment” against Democratic incumbent Letitia James— accusing her of “dereliction” of duty ahead of their debate Thursday.
The sweeping accusations were part of a cheeky campaign stunt that Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, wielded to argue her opponent has been too busy taking aim at President Trump to address the needs to New Yorkers during her two-terms.
“The People do not allege that the defendant has been idle. They allege that she has been busy with the wrong things,” said Komatireddy, who also listed the “Exasperated People of the State of New York” as plaintiffs.
“While the defendant built a national reputation, much of the work of the office went undone,” she charged.
The “counts” against James in the faux court document included failing to intervene as New Yorkers froze to death last winter, allowing mentally ill and repeat offenders to stab and kill innocent bystanders while supporting New York’s controversial cashless bail law and presiding over an increase in crime and homelessness over her tenure.
“New Yorkers froze on sidewalks. New Yorkers were shoved onto subway tracks by men every part of the system already knew. New Yorkers were burned alive in train cars,” the indictment states.
“A family of five, three of them small children, died in a fire at an Endwell motel that a county used as a shelter. A Buffalo mother was shot in front of her three children by a man a court had released the day before.”
The GOP candidate charged that James “did not aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud and welfare fraud or deed theft or investigate tax-exempt not-for-profit groups including those operating homeless shelters.”
Komatireddy also claimed that opioid settlement money won in the name of the dead was “spent on snowblowers and headsets” and that shelter executives were allegedly paid seven figures from grants that James increased.
James failed to push to close government-sponsored injection sites illegal under federal law and that she didn’t advocate to close the “involuntarily intoxication loophole”in state law that makes it more difficult to prosecute rape cases, the document noted.
That loophole has faced renewed scrutiny in light of the “Cornell 7” case, and Gov. Kathy Hochul recently appointed James as special prosecutor to re-investigate the sexual assault claims — despite critics ripping the AG as biasedfor her prior statements siding with the accuser.
“When a law keeps prosecutors from charging rape, it is the chief law enforcement officer’s job to get it changed,” Komatireddy wrote. “The defendant (James) had eight legislative sessions and a Legislature led by her own party. Beyond one social media post, the People have found no evidence that she made the bill a priority.”
Komatireddy’s “demand for relief” listed in the document asks that voters boot James on November 3 so that “the office be returned to a prosecutor who will use its powers for the purposes for which they were granted.
“To lock up repeat offenders, to bring dangerously mentally ill New Yorkers indoors and into treatment, and to root out the fraud that steals from the poor, the sick, and the taxpayer.”
Komatireddy said the demands also include opening an Office of Civil Commitment under the AG’s purview — staffed with law enforcement professionals and doctors — to address mentally unstable individuals roaming the streets.
Her complaint lists the names of more than three dozen victims allegedly killed or badly injured by violent recidivists or mentally ill people who should be confined.
Among the counts alleging dereliction of duty:
- Counts 1-11 regard leaving the mentally ill and the homeless on the street. “The People have found no evidence that in eight winters she (James) built a mechanism, brought a case, or made a demand to protect the homeless from the cold, that she sent the Charities Bureau to examine conditions inside a single shelter, or that she sought the commitment of one New Yorker too sick to come indoors,” the complaint said.
- Counts 12-22 highlight repeat offenders, subway pushers and “the war on police.” James “sided with repeat offenders over their victims and over the police,” Komatireddy claimed.
- Counts 23-24 highlight the spike in hate crimes and antisemitism, with Komatireddy calling for the AG’s office’s Hate Crimes Unit to take action.
- Counts 25-28 regard sex crimes, with Komatireddy arguing James dropped the ball by failing to push the legislature to close the loophole that makes it harder to bring charges if a victim chose to drink or get high themselves before an alleged assault.
- Counts 29-40 regard fraud and the public’s money. “Criminal indictments [for Medicaid fraud] fell from more than 100 a year before she took office to nine, and the unit lost its federal certification,” the complaint said, dubbing the AG “the watchdog that did not bark.”
James’ campaign dismissed the accusations as a campaign stunt.
“Attorney General Letitia James files real lawsuits in real courts every day to protect New Yorkers’ rights and their wallets,” a James campaign spokesperson said.
“While Saritha Komatireddy spent today writing this press release, the Attorney General announced the arrest and indictment of a Queens pharmacy owner for defrauding Medicaid to the tune of $31 million.”
The most recent Siena University poll from last month showed James leading Komatireddy by 13 points — 52% to 39%, with the incumbent’s lead shrinking by 5 points from a prior survey in August.
James, 67, who will be seeking a third term on November 3, is set to face Komatireddy on the debate stage Thursday night in a showdown hosted by Spectrum.
As a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn’s Eastern District of New York, Komatireddy, 42, handled some of the most high-profile cases involving international terrorism, cybercrime, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and public corruption.
James, meanwhile, has garnered nationwide attention for prosecuting Trump and his namesake company for fraudulent practices and filing numerous lawsuits against the administration.
She also commissioned a sexual misconduct probe of ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo that triggered the Democrat’s resignation from office in 2021, even as he denied wrongdoing.
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