Letitia James Kicks Political Butt!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

New York's relentless and ferocious attorney general, Letitia James, has just felled her third political giant in less that four years - and the second in less than a month - feats that mark her as a political force in her own right 

In 2021 Ms. James began looking into allegations of sexual harassment of female state employees by the three-term Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, the son of a former governor and the brother of a well-known national news television correspondent.  The state attorney general, herself a Democrat, did not let party affiliation interfere with her investigation of the women's complaints against the governor, and in August of that year she issued a finding and a lengthy report stating that Cuomo had harassed current and former state employees as well as a number of women outside of state government.  A couple of weeks after her report was released, Cuomo bowed to mounting public pressure and resigned as governor.

Score one for the giant killer!

Ms. James also brought a fraud case against Donald Trump in the state of New York alleging that he had defrauded the state out of millions of dollars by intentionally distorting and misreporting the values of his properties in order to obtain preferential loan and tax tax rates.  A little over a week ago the judge in that case ruled that Trump owes the state of New York in the neighborhood of $450 million - nearly a quarter of which is back interest on that debt.  (Post-judgment interest on that debt is nearly $112,000 per day.)  Trump is whining about political persecution, and Ms. James is countering that the state will begin seizing his New York assets if he does not pay up - and she was reportedly looking at Trump Tower when she said it.

Score two!

The National Rifle Association, a non-profit gun-rights group which was based in New York, became a target in 2020 when Attorney General James sued the the group for violating state law governing how charities registered in New York can operate.   A particular target of the suit was alleged extravagant personal spending  by Wayne LaPierre, the group's leader for the past three decades, as well as spending by some other members of top NRA leadership.  LaPierre resigned his position within the group as the trial began, but that did not allow him to escape legal consequences for his past actions.  Yesterday the National Rifle Association and Wayne LaPierre were found liable for misspending millions of dollars on extravagant perks.  LaPierre himself was found liable for $5.4 million in damages - much of which went for expensive vacations, flights on private jets, and fine Italian suits.

And that makes a three-bagger!

Letitia James is a political dynamo, someone who is not afraid to deal with corruption where she finds it and to face down the political giants of our time - of either party.  Some would have us believe that that there are no US political leaders-in-waiting who are capable dealing with Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, or Putin, but Letitia James would no doubt disagree - and so might Andrew Cuomo, Donald Trump, and Wayne LaPierre.  And at sixty-five years of age, she is still a pup by the standards of both major political parties, but that pup sure can bite!