Letitia James’ perverse priorities fail the people – Latest News
If the state legal professional common’s job had been to stage nonstop flashy political stunts interesting purely to her celebration’s base, Letitia James would rank New York’s best ever, fingers down.
Yet that’s not the job, and James’ myopic deal with politics ill-serves her precise duties and the people of New York State.
Consider: Since taking workplace, James has filed countless legal motions and issued actually tons of of press releases targeted solely on attacking President Donald Trump or blocking his agenda.
This month alone, her workplace despatched out a dozen releases (three a week!) blasting Trump — on business driver’s licenses, gun rights, mail-in voting, Title X funds, immigration enforcement and more.
Most of her legal actions goal to weaponize the courts towards Trump insurance policies, whereas her core duties go uncared for.
James doesn’t care, as a result of even her many court docket losses let her grab headlines and rating factors with the left.
Nor does the AG restrict herself to Trump’s politics: She truly tried to bankrupt him personally with her meritless civil case accusing him of defrauding banks; that led to an insane fantastic of almost half a billion {dollars} from a blatantly biased choose — which was quickly tossed by a larger court docket, making the entire factor a purely symbolic persecution that most likely helped him win the 2024 race.
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In more headline-hunting, she usually joins different blue-state AGs in high-profile fits towards issues like the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, a pointless waste of her workplace’s assets.
Meanwhile, James has (purposely?) uncared for her official duties, most notably, policing Medicaid fraud.
In July, the Empire Center ranked New York the second worst in the nation for prosecuting Medicaid crooks, who swipe billions from taxpayers and weaken the system for many who actually need assist.
The state ranks lifeless final amongst 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 main share of Medicaid prices, 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.
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She’s additionally been MIA in relation to preventing crime, regardless of her function as the state’s prime law-enforcement officer.
In 2022, the Detectives’ Endowment Association, which usually stays silent on AG candidates, urged voters to ditch James for failing to make “public safety a priority” — and for, as an alternative, suing the NYPD for supposedly mishandling the Floyd riots.
And who can overlook one of her most embarrassing moments — when she tried to horn in on City Councilman Chi Ossé theatrical bid to dam an eviction he claimed stemmed from “deed theft”?
As Ossé was being arrested for the stunt, James’s workplace flatly denied “deed theft” sparked the eviction — just for her to reverse course simply two days later, after sticking her finger in the political wind, to gaslight that deed theft was, in reality, concerned (by some means).
She had it proper the first time, of course. But for James, politics has at all times trumped the fact. And her obligations to New Yorkers.
It’s all value remembering as she vies for a third time period this November.
