Letitia James Goes After the High and Mighty

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Letitia James is a lawyer and politician who is currently serving as the attorney general of the state of New York.  She is also African American, a fact which seems to particularly get under the thin skin of Donald Trump, a man who is currently one of her targets in an on-going $250 million civil trial.   Trump has publicly referred to Ms. James, the first black person elected as attorney general of New York, as "racist" as well as "biased and corrupt," words which, coming from Trump, have an air of projection about them.  

The New York attorney general is charging Trump with arbitrarily adjusting the values of his New York properties to mislead banks and insurers.  The judge in the trial has already decided a significant portion of the case by finding Trump and other defendants liable for committing fraud.  According to an article in The Washington Post, the judge has "ordered the cancellation of some Trump Organization business certificates and directed that a receiver be appointed to oversee the dissolution of those entities."

The attorney general and the judge have already gotten into Trump's wallet, and he is not happy about that, hence the vitriol and name-calling.  Closing arguments should occur this month, and the judge's decision could also be announced before the end of January.  Trump, who always appeals, has vowed to appeal an adverse ruling.  Because this is a civil trial, Trump and his family members and associates face no jail time as a result of the findings, but they could face significant fines and business restrictions.

So Letitia James has Donald Trump wound-up tighter than a drum, and since early October she and her legal team have been giving him a steady beating.  But Donald Trump is not the powerful lawyer's only high profile target.  She was also instrumental in the political demise of New York's former Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, and Cuomo, like Trump, bellowed long and loud defaming James after her investigation of claims of sexual harassment of multiple women ended his career.

But the New York attorney general's list of potential trophies does not end with Republican Trump and Democrat Cuomo, she is also in dogged pursuit of the National Rifle Association's Executive Vice President and CEO, Wayne LaPierre, the man who has run the right-wing political organization for more than thirty years.  In a lawsuit brought against LaPierre and other NRA insiders, the New York attorney general is making accusations of decades of corruption.  The lawsuit filed by Ms. James seeks to get the NRA to clean-up its practices, and it is also seeking the ouster of the 74-year-old LaPierre from his leadership position in the gun-lobbying group.

Letitia James has been instrumental in bringing down a sitting governor of New York, and she has also inflicted a major wound to the ego and financial well-being of a former President of the United States.  Now, if she can put her boot up Wayne LaPierre's gun safe, the intuitive and aggressive New York attorney general might find herself with a ticket to higher political office.

And I, for one, would eagerly support her!