Letitia James Is Emerging as a Leader of the Resistance to Trump 2.0, Brightening Her Political Prospects in the Process

New York’s attorney general is in the van of opposition to the 47th president’s agenda — and he owes her office some $500 million.

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, file
New York's attorney general, Letitia James, was booed during a New York City fire department ceremony on March 7. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, file

Attorney General Letitia James of New York ran for office vowing to put prosecutorial pressure on President Trump, and she appears determined to do the same even after he recaptured the highest office in the land.

On nearly every hot button issue the new administration has pressed — birthright citizenship, the freeze in federal funding, and the increased crackdown on illegal immigration — Ms. James has been front and center in opposition. Call it  “resistance” to the White House’s agenda. After a year in which the criminal cases against Mr. Trump have foundered, Ms. James, wielding tort law, is something like the last prosecutor standing.  

Ms. James was one of the first state attorneys general — 22 in total would join the effort — to sue the Trump administration over the memorandum freezing wide swaths of federal funding. She called it “plainly unconstitutional” and “dangerous.” The administration subsequently announced that the freeze is “rescinded.” Its ultimate fate, though, is so far unclear. 

The attorney general was also first off the mark in filing suit in opposition to Mr. Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. Ms. James, in a statement accompanying the lawsuit, declared that the Constitution “is not open to reinterpretation by executive order or presidential decree. … Today, we are suing to uphold the integrity of the U.S. Constitution.”

A federal judge, John Coughenour, enjoined the executive order. He allowed as how he has “been on the bench for over four decades” and “can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear.” He suggested that it “boggled” his mind that any lawyer could reckon otherwise. 

Ms. James has also been at the van of opposing the administration’s paradigm-shift on immigration policy. She could be deepening a rift with Mayor Adams in the process. The attorney general declared on X: “My office is aware of the increased presence of ICE across New York City. I am monitoring the situation to ensure our laws are being respected and people’s rights are not being violated.” She added guidance on the rights of illegal migrants.

That was in marked contrast to the response of the mayor of New York City, who promised that his administration “will not hesitate to partner with federal authorities to bring violent criminals to justice — just as we have done for years.” Mr. Adams this week was summoned to Capitol Hill by Republican lawmakers to testify about “sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States and their impact on public safety.” 

New York City has been a sanctuary jurisdiction since 1989, though Mr. Adams has recently mused about changing that status amid reports that Mr. Trump is considering dropping the federal bribery charges he faces at the Southern District of New York. The mayor’s legal troubles have reportedly induced Ms. James to consider her own run for Gracie Mansion.

The New York Times reports that Ms. James “views her potential candidacy as a way of helping New York City recover from the crisis unfolding under Mr. Adams.” She is an implacable rival of another potential candidate, Governor Cuomo, whom some polls have holding a commanding, albeit hypothetical, lead. Mr. Cuomo has sued her for release of records from the sexual misconduct investigation that led to his resignation.       

Ms. James’s signature victory against Mr. Trump came nearly a year ago, when Judge Arthur Engoron, without a jury trial, found him liable for civil fraud. The penalties were stunning — a judgement that, with interest, now amounts to some $500 million; an independent chaperone to oversee the Trump Organization; and bans on the 47th president’s two eldest sons doing business in New York. 

Judge Engoron found that Mr. Trump’s frauds “leap off the page and shock the conscience,” and Ms. James declared in respect of the real estate mogul that “claiming you have money that you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal. It’s the art of the steal.” She ran for office calling Mr. Trump a “carnival barker” and a “con man.”  

New York’s appellate judges, though, appeared skeptical. One ventured that the “immense penalty in this case is troubling,” and another that the evidence amounted to less a “persistent fraud” than a “commercial dispute” that “almost entirely concerned subjective evaluations of properties and businesses.” 

Mr. Trump’s attorneys have asked Ms. James to voluntarily dismiss the suit, though the Supreme Court has held that sitting presidents do not enjoy immunity from civil litigation. Ms. James has responded in a letter to Mr. Trump’s lawyer, John Sauer: “This Office will not stipulate to vacate the final judgment” against Mr. Trump “or otherwise seek to dismiss the action.” 

Ms. James insists that “the ordinary burdens of civil litigation do not impede the president’s official duties in a way that violates the U.S. Constitution.” Mr. Sauer is slated to become America’s next solicitor general. Ms. James’s office did not respond to a request for comment by the time this article went to print. 


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