President Trump just put the full force of his endorsement behind the Republican trying to remove Letitia James from office.
And he did not ease into it.
The president backed Saritha Komatireddy for New York attorney general while delivering a blistering assessment of the Democrat who has spent years pursuing him and his business.
“Between Kathy Hochul and the Most Corrupt Attorney General in the Country, Letitia James, it has gone to HELL!” President Trump wrote in his endorsement.
That is about as direct as it gets.
Fox News reported that President Trump gave Komatireddy his “complete and total endorsement” after praising her as an America First candidate who would restore law and order, support police and first responders, defend election integrity and protect the Second Amendment.
The endorsement brings the long-running battle between President Trump and James directly into New York’s November election. James used her office to bring the civil fraud case against Trump and the Trump Organization, while Trump has repeatedly accused her of using law enforcement as a political weapon.
Komatireddy thanked the president and immediately made clear that she intends to turn his support into a statewide campaign against James.
I was honored to be nominated to be a federal judge by the President in 2020 and I’m honored to receive his endorsement today. I’m working hard to win the support of all New Yorkers and defeat Letitia James this November. Please invest in our campaign, and let’s win this race together!
— Saritha Komatireddy (@sarithaforny) August 14, 2026
Komatireddy is not a conventional party insider. She built her career as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, later served as chief of staff at the Drug Enforcement Administration and taught law at Columbia.
President Trump nominated her to the federal bench in 2020. She previously clerked for then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The archived White House nomination announcement described Komatireddy as a Harvard College and Harvard Law School graduate who handled general crimes, international narcotics, money laundering, computer hacking and intellectual property cases as a federal prosecutor.
At the time of the February 2020 announcement, she was deputy chief of general crimes in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. She had also served as acting deputy chief of international narcotics and money laundering and as the office’s computer-hacking and intellectual-property coordinator.
Before joining that office, Komatireddy worked as counsel to the national commission investigating the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and practiced law in Washington. She also taught at George Washington University Law School before joining Columbia’s faculty.
Those are serious credentials for a challenger asking voters to replace an incumbent attorney general. President Trump is backing a prosecutor whose résumé gives Republicans a credible way to turn the race into a referendum on how James has used the power of her office.
Her campaign has centered on crime, fraud and what she calls the politicization of the attorney general’s office.
That argument is tailor-made for a contest against James.
Komatireddy has also worked to connect her campaign with New York families affected by violent crime. After appearing with President Trump, she highlighted the parents of 12-year-old Jacob Freytes, who was killed by a stray bullet in the Bronx.
It was an honor to bring Migdalia Martinez and retired NYPD Sergeant Jesus Freytes to yesterday’s event with President Trump. Just weeks ago, Migdalia and Jesus lost their 12-year-old son, Jacob, when he was struck by a stray bullet fired during a gun battle in the Bronx. Yesterday, President Trump stopped his speech, walked off the stage, and embraced them. It was an incredibly powerful moment and a reminder of why we must never allow victims and their families to be forgotten.
— Saritha Komatireddy (@sarithaforny) August 15, 2026
The Republican challenger has already been attacking James on another vulnerable front: the performance of New York’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Komatireddy argues that her own record recovering money in major fraud cases shows what a prosecutor focused on the job can accomplish.
Real fraud experience matters. As a federal prosecutor I recovered more money from multimillion-dollar frauds than the entire Medicaid Fraud Unit under Letitia James recovered in a single year. That is not a boast. It is proof of failed leadership. Full article: https://yonkerstimes.com/nyag-candidate-komatireddy-asks-why-are-medicaid-fraud-recoveries-down/
— Saritha Komatireddy (@sarithaforny) August 15, 2026
The mortgage-fraud fight surrounding James remains legally complicated and must be described accurately.
James was charged in 2025 with bank fraud and making false statements tied to a Virginia property, but a federal judge dismissed that case after finding that the prosecutor who brought it had been unlawfully appointed. Two later grand juries declined to return new indictments.
The Associated Press reported that James denied wrongdoing and called the prosecution politically motivated. The failed re-indictment efforts did not produce a finding that the underlying allegations were true.
The original indictment accused James of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a Norfolk, Virginia, home she purchased in 2020. She pleaded not guilty before the case was dismissed.
The judge’s dismissal did not decide whether James committed mortgage fraud. It rested on the conclusion that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor who presented the case, had been unlawfully appointed as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The Justice Department then tried to bring the case back. A Norfolk grand jury declined to return a new indictment, and a second grand jury in Alexandria reached the same result one week later.
That sequence matters. James has not been convicted of mortgage fraud, and she does not currently face the dismissed charges.
President Trump and his allies continue to point to the allegations. James and her lawyers say the repeated attempts to prosecute her were retaliation for her pursuit of Trump.
The courtroom setbacks only sharpened the political fight now moving onto the ballot.
James’ civil case against Trump produced a fraud finding, but New York’s Appellate Division later threw out the massive financial penalty as excessive while leaving the liability finding in place. The split result gave both camps something to claim, and neither side has backed away.
The official New York court decision preserved the fraud ruling while vacating the disgorgement award that had grown to hundreds of millions of dollars. The Appellate Division’s First Department issued the fractured ruling on August 21, 2025.
The appellate court did not erase the finding that Trump and the other defendants submitted financial statements containing false asset valuations. It also left injunctive relief in place, including oversight and restrictions imposed on the Trump Organization.
But the judges fractured over the punishment. A majority concluded that the enormous disgorgement award was excessive, eliminating the financial penalty that had become the most dramatic part of James’ victory.
That distinction is routinely flattened in political arguments. James can accurately say the liability finding survived.
President Trump can accurately say the staggering monetary judgment was thrown out.
What neither side can claim is closure. The case remains part of a much larger battle over whether James used New York’s attorney general powers to enforce the law or to target a political enemy.
Now New Yorkers will get their own say on the future of the attorney general’s office.
James is running on her record and her opposition to President Trump. Komatireddy is running as the prosecutor who says she will return the office to crime, public safety and fraud enforcement.
With President Trump’s endorsement, that race just became one of the clearest political grudge matches on the 2026 ballot.
And this time, the verdict will come from the voters.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
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