EXCLUSIVE: AG James on reelection, public safety, Cornell case

So joining us now is New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me, Morgan. So you've been in office for eight years and if reelected, you'll be in office for 12 years. What do you see as the role of the Attorney General? And looking forward, what's next for you? Oh, so first of all, let me thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. As the Attorney General of the state of New York, you are the state's attorney. And so you have to represent the state. You have to defend all of their laws. And you have to ensure that New Yorkers are safe from county to county. We do cross-county and cross-state investigations. We also do consumer affairs. We focus on landlord-tenant. Right now, we're focusing on deed theft, which is a major issue in the state of New York. We've been focusing on health care, which is a major issue. Individuals, unfortunately, are, you know, are maybe, might be losing their Medicaid and their Affordable Care Act, and that's a major concern. I've heard it all throughout the state of New York. So it's mostly civil. And we have a small criminal enforcement area. And we have removed over 10,000 guns off of the streets of the state of New York. We busted up gun rings and gang members. We removed fentanyl and xylazine and cocaine off of the streets of New York state. We've worked with the district attorneys. There are 62 DAs. We've worked with the FBI. And we've worked with seniors. In fact, Morgan, this morning, I got an unfortunate call. This woman called me and she said, Tish, what could I do? What should I do? And I said, what happened? And she was scammed out of five thousand dollars, scammed this. It's called Gold Bar scams. And we had issued a guidance and it was a drop down that she received on her phone. And she thought it was her bank when, in fact, it was a bad actor and she lost five thousand dollars. And so we're trying to get her to recover those funds. But I hear that over and over again from senior citizens. And I'm really concerned about senior citizens in nursing homes who have been left alone. And so we do a wide range of investigation. And of course, as you know, the governor appointed us to do a comprehensive investigation into the Cornell case. In 2022, you considered just very briefly running for governor about maybe about a weekend. Maybe it felt like. But but then you decided to run again for state attorney general. You won. Why run again for another four years? Because we have a lot of unfinished business to do. And as the attorney general of the state of New York, I took an oath to New Yorkers to protect them from harm. And what we are seeing right now is a lot of harms coming from federal government, federal overreach. And so Medicaid cuts, for instance, food stamp cuts, SNAP cuts, cuts to veteran services, cuts to housing, cuts to law enforcement, cuts to a wide range of issues. And each and every time there is an executive order that harms New Yorkers, it is my responsibility to stand up and to defend them and to fight back. And I want New Yorkers to know that we have won 85 percent of our cases. But then this administration decided to put those same cuts in the big, beautiful bill. And as a result, come January 1, thousands of New Yorkers, maybe millions of New Yorkers will lose their Medicaid. I met a senior just the other day in Crown Heights who told me that her husband, who is disabled, will lose his Medicaid cuts. And to get a fair hearing, she's going to have to wait six months in order to get a hearing, again, to basically demand that, in fact, to get some due process with regards to Medicaid cuts. And so it's important that individuals understand and they know what's happening in the state of New York. And it's my responsibility and duty to stand up and fight for their rights and for their services. And that's what I do. Your opponent, Sarita Comer Toretti, envisions expanding the reach of the attorney general's office to really go after street crime, retail theft, hate crimes and more. Now, your office is focused primarily on civil cases. Explain why that is. So, again, there are 62 district attorneys and I have full faith with the NYPD and I've worked very closely with NYPD and NYPD does a great job with street crime, which is why street crime is down. Now, can we do better? Can we do better on the subway? Can we do better with sexual assaults? Yes. And that is why it's so important that we support NYPD. We give them the necessary resources as well as our district attorneys who enforce the law in the state of New York, particularly street crime. Now, we have two units and other criminal units, small units within our office. But that jurisdiction is given to us by the state legislature and by the governor of the state of New York. And again, those units were cross-county, cross-state, and sometimes cross-jurisdiction. And we established task force, which is why we were responsible, again, working with the FBI and with district attorneys in prosecuting individuals, I guess the biggest retail theft ring in New York City. Our office was involved in that. We also have taken down gang members, gang rings. We've taken down gun rings. We have enforced the law with regards to illegal drugs in the state of New York. Again, working with our district attorneys who have primary jurisdiction in that area and working with NYPD. Again, 62 DAs. And I would dare not trespass on their authority. And and, of course, working closely with NYPD to support them in their efforts. And they do an amazing job, which is why I stand with them always. And, of course, Commissioner Tisch is doing a fabulous job as well. But is there more that you can do? Just looking at NYPD's crime statistics, felony assaults on the rise for the sixth straight year, up 48 percent since 2019. More than 260 people have been arrested at least three times for felony assault on the subway this year. Are district attorneys doing their jobs if numbers are like this? So let me just say that a number of these incidents, particularly on the subway, involve individuals who are struggling with mental illness. And as you know, under previous administrations, they closed all of the facilities for individuals who were suffering from mental illness and they did not provide the aftercare, the services that they need. And one of the things that I have been doing is working with the legislature to ensure that those services are in place and that we provide more services to individuals who are suffering from mental illness. My opponent would like basically to have all of the individuals basically institutionalize. And we tried that before. Remember Willowbrook? It did not work. What we need is compassionate and sensitive care to individuals who are struggling with mental illness because the vast majority of individuals suffering from mental illness are not criminal. Two, we need to support our police. We need to support sheriffs in upstate. We need to support NYPD. We need to provide them with the necessary resources. I worked with Commissioner Tisch when we put in place and a former police commissioner, ShotSpotter. I worked on body worn cameras and I'm working on other non-lethal uses of force to address this increase in crime that we are seeing in the state and in the city of New York. And it's important that we all work together. But it's also important that you have relationships. And I have good relationships with members in Albany, in the Assembly, in the Senate, the Assembly Speaker, as well as the Majority Leader, to get things done, which is why we have been so successful in getting things done in the state of New York. Can we do more on crime? Yes. Will we do more on crime? Yes. Working with our partners, the 62 district attorneys, NYPD, and with the state legislature, and of course, Governor Kathy Hochul. Your office has also investigated civilian deaths during encounters with police officers and brought criminal charges. What's stopping your office from going after other criminal cases and if they're not being pursued by the district attorney? So OSI, the Office of Special Investigation, was as a result of an act by the legislature and the governor. They basically gave me authority to investigate incidents where civilians die as a result of police interaction. We investigate those cases, we issue reports, and whenever there is wrongdoing, we pursue criminal charges. And we have been very successful in issuing those reports and providing some security and a sense of justice to individuals who recognize that there is a conflict between district attorneys and police officers and they need an independent office. And that's why the legislature and the governor authorized the office of the attorney general. So to increase our authority over street crime, again, we would be taking away authority from the 62 district attorneys. And again, the 62 district attorneys have been doing a great job investigating street crime. And I work with them and I would not trespass on their authority. And it's important that individuals understand that we should support the district attorneys. We should support law enforcement. Clearly, NYPD, the sheriff's office and state police could use more resources. And I fully support that. And so when the legislative session begins, I look forward to working with those law enforcement agencies to increase their budgets so we can increase manpower and we can increase the tools that they need to investigate these crimes. Mayor Adams was supposed to add additional police officers to the city's budget, but he decided not to. Do you think that was a mistake? It's not a question of mistake. It's the question of the budget. And so we in the city of New York, we would have to work with the city council in the state of New York. We'd have to work with the state legislature during their budget process. And so I look forward to working with the city council and the state legislature to see if we could do more for law enforcement, particularly at a time when we're seeing an increase with crimes on the subway as well as sexual assaults. and that's an issue and again lastly last but not least getting additional resources for individuals who are struggling with mental illness that is so critically important again we should not incarcerate them we should approach it in a compassionate way and provide them with aftercare and the professional services that they need because again the vast majority of individuals who struggle with mental illness are not violent now you mentioned cornell you were appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul to be a special independent prosecutor in the alleged rape case at cornell university but before you were appointed you posted to social media saying quotes what this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable i'm holding her in my heart and in my prayers to her and to all survivors you're not alone we stand with you now some critics and even some legal experts have questioned your impartiality have you thought about recusing yourself no because um tweets are not evidence and they're not facts and we will engage in a comprehensive investigation based on the facts the evidence and the law tweets are not evidence they're not any indicia of where i stand with respect to this particular case this is this will be a comprehensive case the governor has placed trust in our office and we will engage in an investigation again based on the facts the evidence and the law and your office is hiring outside investigators to help with the investigation, or how is that going to work? At this point in time, when we have something to report on the progress of the Cornell investigation, you'll be the first to know. Jumping the gun. Why not let outside counsel handle the case? Why is it important that you stay involved in this? So the Office of the Attorney General was given the authority by the governor of the state of New York, and we will fully investigate this comprehensive case, again, based on the facts the evidence and the law and if we have anything to report you'll be the first to know last week uh federal agents searched adult day care facilities in brooklyn queens and staten island as part of an investigation into more than 100 sites suspected of medicaid fraud this is something the trump administration has really tried to hit home with new york and your office do you think that your office uh could do more when it comes to medicaid fraud were you part of this investigation when they came in so we were part of this investigation In fact, one of the adult daycare centers that we were involved in is part of this takedown. And we have engaged in Medicaid fraud. In fact, the federal government last year under President Trump indicated that New York was one of the top Medicaid fraud units in this entire country. So we are and we have been specifically focusing on nursing homes. And so during COVID and after COVID, a number of loved ones reached out to me personally and to the office. And they indicated that their seniors, that their loved ones were suffering in nursing homes, that they had sepsis, they had bed sores, that they had gangrene. And so it was incumbent upon us to look at this further. And so we decided to investigate nursing homes and we wanted to look at the operators of nursing homes, the owners of nursing homes. We wanted to know where our Medicaid dollars were being spent. Well, we uncovered that the vast majority of those resources were not being spent on nursing homes. They were unfortunately being put in the pockets of these owners. And that is wrong. And that is why so many loved ones, so many senior citizens were lying in waste. And so we investigated these nursing homes and we brought civil charges against them. We recovered millions of dollars. But most importantly, we implemented fundamental and foundational change in these nursing homes. And then I was not finished. I decided to go to Albany to the legislature and work with them to pass two laws. One, that they would increase staffing ratios at nursing homes because too many nurses and too many nurses' aides were working under horrific conditions. And two, that any profits from nursing homes be reinvested back into nursing homes. Those bills were passed. The nursing industry challenged those laws. We defended those laws and we won. We do not want seniors to suffer. And that is why when it comes to seniors and children and the state of New York and individuals, it is my responsibility and duty to protect them from harm. And that's what we do every day. Now, as you know, New York right now spends more on Medicaid than it does on education, costing taxpayers nearly $40 billion this past budget cycle. Your opponent says that your office collects around $19 million in penalties, but it cost your office $250 million to bring this money in. Is this true? No. And it's unfortunate that my opponent would continue to tell, you know, mistruths about the office of the attorney general. And if you're going to run for an office, you should know how the office operates. We have exceeded Medicaid reimbursements. We've exceeded recovery in the area of Medicaid, Medicaid fraud. And it's important that individuals understand that the federal government designated our office. My office is one of the top Medicaid fraud units here in throughout the country. And we are continued. We will continue to investigate Medicaid fraud each and every day. You'll see that there's press releases on all of our investigations into individuals who engage in Medicaid fraud, Because we do recognize that we should work with the federal government and we have focusing on fraud and corruption and focusing on individuals, obviously, who do not care for others in the transportation space, in the nursing home space, in the medical space, in spaces for individuals who steal from Medicaid. we are on top of it we have charged them we have sued them civilly and we have brought home millions and millions of dollars for New Yorkers again for individuals who need Medicaid in a and again let me go back to the point uh that i said earlier individuals obviously who need Medicaid are entitled to Medicaid and they are very much concerned about the Medicaid cuts that will go into place January, that will be effective January 1st. And more and more senior citizens are concerned about those cuts. And it's unfortunate that my opponent has not said anything with respect to those cuts and all of the other executive orders that is incumbent upon the attorney general to stand up and to fight back. Now, in President Trump's first term, you sued his administration 66 times over the span of two years. Looking back, is there anything you would change from that? No, because again, as I mentioned earlier, these executive orders are oftentimes arbitrary. They're capricious. They violate the spending clause. They violate the fact that Congress has already appropriated all of these funds for New York and the executive, the president of the United States, cannot on his own just issue an executive order, which basically terminates funds for New York. In fact, on the largest infrastructure project in this country, the Gateway Project, the tunnel between New York and New Jersey, there were over 1,000 New York workers, most of them union workers, and the president of the United States decided to cut those funds. It was incumbent upon me to fight for those funds and fight for that project because of the economic benefits to New York and to New Jersey. So I joined with the New Jersey Attorney general, we sued and we won. It's those cases that I'm involved in. I have no personal animus against the president. I took an oath to New Yorkers to protect them from harm. And so whenever you harm New Yorkers, whenever you terminate funds for New York, be it Medicaid funds, be it funds for police, funds for seniors, senior citizens, funds for veterans, funds for housing, I have a responsibility and duty to stand up and fight back. And it's unfortunate that my opponent has not mentioned one thing about standing up and fighting on behalf of New Yorkers, particularly when the federal government is engaged in federal overreach. If you win reelection, would you run again after four years? So can I just win in the next seven days? And can I get back to you? Can I focus again on New York i am not envious of campaigns in this last final stretch um what's your last message to voters as they're heading to the polls uh this week early voting ends on sunday what's your message uh what do you hope they remember about you and your time service so it's also it's important that individuals understand that i created a task force to ensure individuals that um their right to vote is sacred and safe and so uh we We have a election protection task force and individuals who feel that their vote is being suppressed, that they're being targeted when they go in to vote, that people are asking them questions or asking for identification. If there's any difficulty when individuals go out to vote, they need to reach out to the office of the attorney general. We have individuals who are manning the phones with individuals who will respond to any issue. If they're concerned that ICE will be at the polling sites, if they're concerned about any disruptions, the office of the attorney general, again, is there to protect New York from harm. And I just want to let everyone know that I live and breathe justice each and every day, and I live and breathe standing up for the great state of New York. It is my honor and my privilege to serve as the attorney general of the great state of New York, and I look forward to serving in the next four years. And it's an honor to be on your program. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you.