Letitia James

Letitia Ann James grew up in Brooklyn and is one of eight children, born to a mother who worked as a cleaner and in customer service and a father who was a building superintendent. She was a self-described tomboy who liked to read fairy tales. That she would grow up to be the state’s first Black woman elected to be attorney general might have seemed like a fairy tale to the young girl. That she would find herself locked in ongoing legal battles with Donald Trump, a fellow New Yorker and president of the United States, might have appealed more to her tomboy side.

James, who goes by Tish, in 2024 successfully sued the Trump Organization, the Trump family business, for inflating its net worth to defraud investors, winning a judgment against Trump in excess of half a billion dollars. (The penalty was later thrown out, but the finding that he inflated assets was upheld.) The next year, with Trump back in office, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted James on charges that she lied on a mortgage application. The charges were subsequently dismissed.

Early years

Growing up in New York, young Letitia James would ride the subway, and when she was about 10, she saw something that made a profound impression on her: a Black woman dressed in a business suit, carrying a briefcase. “The first woman of color I ever saw wear a business suit was on the subway.” Those women became her role models.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

But James also saw something else when, as a young teenager, one of her brothers was accused of stealing a bicycle. James accompanied her mother, Nellie James, to court, watching as Nellie helped her son navigate the legal process. “I saw the defendants in criminal court all looked like me, and all the people in power did not.”

James went on to graduate from Lehman College, earning a degree in psychology. In 1987 she graduated from Howard University School of Law.

Career in law

James’s first position was as a public defender for the Legal Aid Society. In a 2021 interview with Time magazine, James recalled the feeling of finally achieving her goal of becoming a lawyer, saying that “stepping into a courtroom and defending someone falsely accused of a crime” was “surreal.” She would go on to lead the Brooklyn Regional Office of the New York State Attorney General’s Office.

Political office

James, a Democrat, had political ambitions, and in 2001 she ran for a seat on the New York City Council. She lost, but two years later she ran again and won, representing Brooklyn on the council for a decade. In 2013 politics and her legal career merged when she was elected the city’s public advocate, a kind of ombudsman role for the interest of New Yorkers. She was the first Black woman to serve in a citywide elective office.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

As public advocate James was a dogged litigant on behalf of those she saw as being victimized by powerful individuals or institutions, including older people and people with disabilities. She particularly targeted landlords who took advantage of their tenants, going after what she called “the worst landlords in New York City.” Her detractors accused her of being too litigious and filing suits for which she lacked standing. But James made no apologies for, in her words, “stretching the boundaries of the law to protect the rights of individuals being abused.”

Taking on Trump and others

In 2018 James ran to become New York’s attorney general. When she was elected in November, she became the first woman of color to win statewide office in New York. She also made clear that she would pursue the business interests of the president. “I will be shining a bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings, and every dealing, demanding truthfulness at every turn.”

But as much as she had Republican Trump in her sights, in 2021 James also played a key role in the downfall of one of New York’s most prominent Democrats, Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In a scathing report from the Attorney General’s Office, James found that 11 women who had accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct were telling the truth. The report led to Cuomo’s resignation; James briefly ran for governor to replace him but quit the race after several weeks.

As for Trump, shortly after she took office, James began an investigation into the Trump Organization. In 2022 James’s office filed suit against Trump and members of his family, accusing them of fraud by overvaluing their holdings. James sought to bar the Trumps from conducting business in New York. Trump fired back at James, calling her “racist” in a social media post. When a judge found Trump responsible for a conspiracy to inflate his net worth to defraud lenders in 2024, the total fine was more than $500 million. James marked the victory, saying, “This long-running fraud was intentional, egregious, illegal.”

Trump called James and the judge “corrupt” and appealed the decision. In August 2025 a New York appeals court ruled that the fine was “excessive” but upheld the finding of asset inflation.

James also took on a significant role in the historic Sackler family/Purdue Pharma settlement regarding the opioid crisis. In June 2025 James announced that all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories had reached a settlement that ensured that “the Sacklers no longer have control of Purdue and will never be allowed to sell opioids in the United States again.” The settlement called for $7.4 billion to be paid by the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma over 15 years, with the funds going toward victims and addiction treatment, prevention, and recovery programs.

Indictment

Shortly after Trump’s return to office in 2025, it became clear that James would be a target of the new administration’s DOJ investigations. In April, Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, asked the department to investigate claims that James “falsified records” to get favorable loans on properties. In October James was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on charges that she lied on documents pertaining to her 2020 purchase of a house in Norfolk, Virginia. James was accused of saying that the house was for personal use but instead using it as a rental property. Loan rates for personal use are lower than those for income property, resulting in about $19,000 in “ill-gotten gains” over the life of the loan, according to the indictment. The indictment of James came several weeks after the DOJ charged former FBI director, and frequent Trump adversary, James Comey with lying to Congress.

James, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, also denied wrongdoing in a video posted to social media:

These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order.

In November 2025, a U.S. district judge ruled that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully appointed to her position by Trump and the indictment against James was thrown out. The same judge also threw out the indictment of Comey. The following month the Department of Justice again sought an indictment against James, but the grand jury declined to indict.

In 2026, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul names James as a special prosecutor to look into a woman’s allegation that she was raped at a fraternity near the campus of Cornell University in 2024. The case drew national attention in 2026 when the woman filed a civil lawsuit questioning the investigation into the allegations by local law enforcement.