We continue to be dismayed by the antics of New York Attorney General Letitia James when it comes to anything having to do with former President Donald Trump. In 2019, as the leading aspirant to the job of chief legal officer of New York, she made no bones about the fact that she was running in order to bring Trump down. And during the course of the campaign that year, she boasted that “I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate President.” [Italics ours.]
And after President Biden dropped his 2024 re-election campaign she declared in the course of an interview on MSNBC, “I’m focused at this point in time on securing the nomination for Vice President Harris and then ultimately getting her elected… organizing and educating individuals about all that Trump did to divide us on constructs such as race, class, and gender… That is my singular focus at this point in time and continuing to stand up for the rule of law….[Donald Trump] is not concerned about the rule of law, not concerned about the interests of working-class people in this country, not concerned about uniting us. It’s all about how he can benefit himself and his family….”
For us it is off-putting that a candidate for or occupant of such a senior law enforcement position should be making these sorts of injudicious and outright political statements targeted toward individuals. Surely the better course of action is for those charged with impartially enforcing our laws to keep the appearance of politics out of the public mix as much as possible.
While we are not unmindful that a New York State Supreme Court Justice has ruled against Mr. Trump in a civil fraud case brought by Ms. James, we have also been told by legal experts that the coming appeal of the verdict will be a defense lawyer’s dream. Nor do we think that it can be argued with a straight face that the case brought against Trump was commenced in the normal course, wholly independent of his notoriety. And the notion of selective prosecution matters an awful lot in America.
We hasten to acknowledge Ms. James’ expansion of her office’s work on traditional bread and butter issues. Indeed, barely a day goes by without some news release from her office about some positive achievements on a broad range of efforts to protect New Yorkers. But our concern is with at least the appearance of injudiciousness that seems to automatically attach to anything Trump. And that seems to have overtaken her office and defined it for much of the public.
