Who is Letitia James? New York’s attorney general has battled Trump, big tech and the NRA

NEW YORK (AP) — It was January 2004 and Donald Trump and Letitia James, a fellow New Yorker who would become his nemesis, were embarking on new ventures that would launch their political careers.

Trump’s show “The Apprentice,” which introduced him to a new generation of Americans, premiered on NBC. James was sworn in as a newly elected member of the New York City Council, representing Brooklyn.

James became New York’s attorney general in 2019 and began a legal feud with Trump that has persisted.

She’s battled big tech, opioid manufacturers and the National Rifle Association. But it is the Democrat’s barrage of lawsuits against Trump, suing him for fraud and challenging his Republican administration’s policies, that has shaped her tenure and drawn his ire.

Now, Trump is fighting back. After pressuring his Justice Department, James was indicted Thursday on mortgage fraud charges. She has denied wrongdoing and accused Trump of weaponizing the criminal justice system for revenge.

Growing up in Brooklyn, venturing into politics

James, 66, and her seven siblings grew up in Brooklyn, where she still lives. Her father worked in maintenance and her mother, Nellie, worked in customer service for AT&T.

James graduated from Lehman College of the City University of New York and Howard University School of Law. Before entering politics, she was a public defender and an assistant state attorney general.

James ran for city council in 2001 but lost to a former police officer, James Davis, in a primary that was delayed by the Sept. 11 attacks. Davis was killed at City Hall two years later by a political rival. James went on to win the election to replace Davis and held the seat from 2004 to 2013.

Combining politics and law

James was the city’s public advocate, an elected ombudsman position, from 2013 to 2018.

She pushed for police accountability and compiled an annual “worst landlords” list. In her final year in office, she named the city’s public housing agency as worst. She also lobbied for police officers to wear body cameras and for special prosecutors to be appointed in police misconduct cases.

James said her work as public advocate was a precursor to her approach as attorney general.

Running for attorney general wasn’t her first idea

James ran for attorney general after the man who held that post, Eric Schneiderman, abruptly resigned in 2018 after he was accused of abusing women.

At the time, James said she was considering arun for mayor. But she decided to enter the race for attorney general after a neighbor asked for help navigating Trump’s immigration policies. She said personal experiences with discrimination have given her a different perspective than others who have held the office.

First Black woman to hold statewide office in New York

James campaigned as “the people’s lawyer” and pledged to make the attorney general’s office a firewall against Trump’s policies. In her victory speech, she called the president a “con man” and “carnival barker” and pledged to shine a “bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings.”

Buoyed by endorsements from then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, support from powerful unions and a social media plug from rapper Nicki Minaj, James became the the first Black woman elected to statewide office in New York, its first Black attorney general and the first woman elected to the post.

In a 2018 interview with The Associated Press, James acknowledged her milestone achievements, but said: “I’m not here to make history. I’m here to get things done.”

Suing Trump over his policies and accusing him of fraud

James has sued Trump and his administration dozens of times, challenging cuts to counterterrorism funding, his effort to overturn birthright citizenship and other policies.

In 2019, she finalized an agreement to close his charity, the Trump Foundation, after it was found to have misspent funds to further his political and business interests.

In 2022, James filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump inflated his net worth by billions of dollars by misleading banks and insurers about the value of assets such as Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago.

A judge ordered Trump last year to pay a massive monetary penalty. An appeals court later threw out the penalty, which had grown to more than $500 million with interest, but affirmed a lower-court finding that Trump committed fraud.

Taking on the NRA and a fellow Democrat

She’s also sued tech giants Facebook and Google; manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers; the Roman Catholic Church; and the NYPD.

In 2021, she oversaw an investigation into allegations that Cuomo sexually harassed women, leading to his resignation. Cuomo complained at the time that the investigation was rife with “politics and bias.” His staff, without providing proof, accused James’ office of leaking information about it to the media.

Two months after Cuomo quit, James announced a run for governor and then abandoned it to run for reelection as attorney general, saying she wanted to “complete the work” she was elected to do.

She also sued the National Rifle Association and its longtime head, Wayne LaPierre, alleging that its leaders had misspent millions of dollars. A jury found that LaPierre, who resigned from the NRA, was obligated to repay almost $4.4 million.

Conservatives argued that James just wanted to destroy the nation’s most prominent gun-rights group.

A personal disclosure during the battle over Roe v. Wade

In 2022, after a draft leaked of the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, James disclosed that she had an abortion almost two decades earlier when she was a newly elected city council member.

James told protesters at a Manhattan rally that she makes “no apologies” for her decision.