NEW YORK, N.Y. — New York Republicans have nominated Indian American lawyer Saritha Komatireddy to run for state attorney general, setting up a high-profile contest against incumbent Letitia James, a frequent adversary of President Donald Trump.
Komatireddy accepted the nomination at the Republican Party State Convention on Tuesday, positioning her campaign as a direct challenge to James’ tenure.
“From now until November, I will prosecute the political case against Letitia James, and unlike her, I win my cases,” she said in her acceptance remarks.
James has gained national prominence for aggressively pursuing Trump, members of his family, and his business empire on fraud allegations, earning his sustained hostility. After Trump returned to the White House, his administration brought fraud charges against James related to a mortgage she had received, but the case was dismissed after a grand jury declined to indict her.
Komatireddy has a long background in federal law enforcement. During a decade as a federal prosecutor, she focused on terrorism, cybercrime, transnational criminal organizations, money laundering, and foreign public corruption. Her cases included prosecutions involving leaders of Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and Mexican drug cartels.
She said the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks influenced her decision to pursue a legal career focused on counterterrorism.
“While I was chasing terrorists across the Middle East, I saw right here in my backyard in New York, public safety completely deteriorated,” she said.
Komatireddy has also served as chief of staff at the Drug Enforcement Administration. In 2020, Trump nominated her to serve as a federal judge, but the nomination expired when the Senate did not act on it before the end of its session.
She holds bachelor’s and law degrees from Harvard University and currently teaches at Columbia University’s law school while practicing with a private law firm. Early in her career, she served as a law clerk to Brett Kavanaugh when he was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals.
The New York attorney general’s office is an elected position with significant national visibility. James is widely viewed as a Democratic standard-bearer for her legal victories against Trump, including a civil fraud case decided while Trump was out of office.
In that case, a judge in 2023 found Trump liable for fraud and imposed a $364 million penalty that later grew to nearly $500 million. An appeals court overturned the size of the penalty as excessive but allowed the underlying guilty verdict to stand.
James accused Trump and his associates of inflating asset values to secure favorable loan terms. Trump repaid the loans, and lenders did not dispute the valuations used at the time. (Source: IANS)
